Pictured: Six-month-old baby 'beaten to death with a SLEDGEHAMMER and carving knife by grandmother who was babysitting'

Alfreda Giedrojc, 61, charged with first-degree murder over death of Vivian Summers

The child was hit with a sledgehammer and had her throat slit at home in Oak Lawn, Illinois



A grandmother has been charged with the murder of her granddaughter after she allegedly hit the baby with a sledgehammer as she lay sleeping before slitting her throat.



Alfreda Giedrojc, 61, is believed to have killed six-month-old Vivian Summers on Sunday morning, authorities said on Monday.

The grandmother, of Oak Lawn, Illinois, allegedly placed the baby on the floor of the suburban home and hit her repeatedly with the sledgehammer. She then retrieved a carving knife from the kitchen and slit the baby’s throat.

Brutal death: Baby Vivian, pictured with her parents Amy and Joel, was allegedly murdered by her grandmother

Killer: Alfreda Giedrojc is accused of murdering her granddaughter using a sledgehammer and a carving knife

Giedrojc has been charged with first-degree murder and held without bond in the Cook County jail.



The alleged killer is the maternal grandmother of baby Vivian. Giedrojc's daughter Amy has been married to Joel Summers since September 2009.

A message left at a phone listing for Giedrojc in Oak Lawn was not immediately returned. Oak Lawn Police Chief Michael Murray called the baby’s death 'a tragedy'.

Giedrojc, who is o riginally from Poland, had been left alone with baby Vivian while her husband Bill and their son-in-law left to help a family member with household repairs.

Vivian had been asleep on the sofa at her grandparents home in Oak Lawn, a suburb to Chicago, when Giedrojc went to fetch a sledgehammer which she had hidden in her closet the night before.

Placing the infant on the floor, Giedrojc repeatedly hit Vivian over the head and body with the hammer and when the child did not die, Giedrojc picked her up and slit her throat with a carving knife taken from her kitchen.

Upon his return to the house, Giedrojc's husband made the gruesome discovery and called police. Vivian was pronounced dead in hospital on Sunday afternoon.



Tragedy: Little Vivian's parents had left her alone with her grandmother while the father and the grandfather helped out a neighbor, believed to be Vivian's uncle

Horror find: The six-month-old's body was found by her grandfather Bill who called the police on his wife

‘The defendant took the victim off of the couch where she had been sleeping and placed the baby on the floor and retrieved a sledgehammer from her closet, which she had placed there the night before,’ said Michael Deno, Assistant Cook County State's Attorney told the Chicago Tribune.

‘The defendant then hit the victim repeatedly in the head and body with the sledgehammer. Since the victim was still crying and moving the defendant went into the kitchen and retrieved a large carving knife.

'The defendant then picked the victim up, held her, and then slit her throat with the knife,’ Mr Deno said.



Giedrojc is being held without bail after appearing in court on Monday. Despite having lived in the U.S. for 30 years, Giedrojc needed a Polish translator.