Meet Isabella Guzman, The TikTok Teen Who Stabbed Her Mother 79 Times

June 2024 · 13 minute read

Isabella Guzman (born June 1995) is an American TikTok sensation who became famous after she appeared in court for brutally and savagely stabbing her mother 79 times in the face and the neck, thereby killing her in the process.

This unfortunate and bizarre incident happened in 2013 when Isabella Guzman was only 18 years old. This article discusses the life of the TikTok star before and after she committed the heinous crime that prematurely ended her mother’s life.

Summary of Isabella Guzman’s Biography

How Old Is Isabella Guzman?

Isabella Guzman is currently 28 years old, as she was born in June 1995 in the United States of America. Her exact date of birth is unknown at the moment, but she belongs to the Hispanic ethnic group. Isabella’s birth status confers on her the rights and privileges of an American citizen.

She is the daughter that came out of the marriage between Robert Guzman and Yun Mi Hoy. Every indication also points to the fact that she is the only child her parents had together before their marriage, of which pertinent details are blurry, ended. The dissolution of her parent’s marriage occurred when Isabella was still a child.

Sources close to the family have revealed that Isabella had some issues as a child, which impacted and was reflected in her behavior. Those same sources also claim that the young woman who was relatively let off the hook for killing her mother was generally a sweet, cute kid with a good-natured personality.

Isabella Guzman

However, those unsavory moments in her childhood forced her mother to send her to live with her father for a while when she was around seven years old. It should be noted that Guzman’s parents were predominantly Jehovah’s Witnesses and that they tried to, sometimes forcefully, instill the same values in their child, which didn’t achieve the desired results.

By the time Isabella returned home to her mother, Yun Mi Hoy, and her stepfather, Ryan Hoy, things had deteriorated to the point where her stepfather claimed that she had become openly disrespectful and more threatening to those around her, her mother in particular.

Isabella’s formal education background details include the publicly known fact that she dropped out of high school when she was around 14 years old after becoming disillusioned by what she now considers her parents’ high-handed nature and the scores of abuse, likely emotional, that she received as a result of her decision to abandon the Jehovah’s Witness’ doctrines.

Isabella Guzman Murdered Her Mother By Stabbing Her Multiple Times

On August 28, 2013, Isabella Guzman did the unthinkable and gruesomely murdered Yun Mi Hoy, her mother. The brutal matricide was despicable on its own, but how Isabella carried out the gruesome act was what made it even more so. Isabella Guzman reportedly stabbed the poor and defenseless Yun Mi Hoy 79 times, 31 times on the face and 48 times on her neck and torso combined.

Before this unfortunate passage of events, the relationship between mother and daughter had become so bad that Isabella spat in her mother’s face after the two had engaged in a particularly nasty argument. All this happened just one day before Isabella carried out her nefarious plans against her mother.

Reports from the incident also show that the argument continued with Isabella sending her mom a threatening email, telling her she would pay. Reading the email provoked a flight response from Yun Mi Hoy, who proceeded to call the attention of the police to the matter.

The police wasted no time in responding to the threat, and they arrived to effectively warn Isabella to desist from making life unbearable for her mother, who had the legal right to throw her out of the house if she persisted in her misdemeanors. To drive the point home, Isabella’s birth father, Robert Guzman, was invited by Yun Mi Hoy to weigh in on the matter of his daughter’s disrespect and other unsavory behavior.

On the evening of the same day that the police had come, father and daughter reportedly had a heart-to-heart conversation in the backyard of the late Yun Mi Hoy about the value and importance of respecting and honoring one’s parents. Unfortunately, it was a conversation that made no dent in Isabella, who had set her sights on doing the evil deed that same day.

Yun Mi Hoy must have returned home from work on the night of August 28, 2013, with high hopes of a noticeable change in her daughter’s behavior, but nothing prepared her for the shocking events that would occur that night. She reportedly returned around 9:30 pm and informed her husband that she planned to have a bath upstairs.

Everything seemed normal until the serenity which pervaded the house was suddenly disrupted by the screams of Isabella’s mother. Ryan Hoy wasted no time in his attempt to investigate the cause of the screams, which he correctly identified as having come from his wife and in the direction of their shared bedroom upstairs.

He arrived in time to see a determined and violent Isabella trailing his wife into the bathroom, armed with a baseball bat and a knife. He, however, couldn’t intervene in time before Isabella barred the bathroom door with her weight and the locks to prevent him from interfering with or stopping what was certain to be a certain slaughter.

His efforts to force the door open failed, and he listened helplessly as his wife’s screams became fainter until the only visible sign of what had occurred on the other side of the bathroom seeped through the door in the form of Yun Mi Hoy’s blood. That was when Ryan rushed downstairs to call the cops. It was a decision that came too late because he returned to hear his wife utter her last words.

Shortly afterward, Isabella emerged from the other side of the door with a glazed look and a bloody knife. She walked past the horrified Ryan Hoy, who equally walked into the bathroom to examine the carnage his stepdaughter had just left behind. His wife lay naked and dead on the bathroom floor with the baseball bat beside her and covered in stab wounds later revealed to be at least 79 in number.

She Was Arrested The Next Day

By the time the cops responded to the 911 call made by Ryan Hoy, Isabella Guzman had fled the scene of her notorious crime. The authorities quickly put out the information that she was on the run and that anyone who caught a glimpse of her should inform the police and not engage because she was considered armed and dangerous.

The manhunt, fortunately, was not a prolonged one and ended the very next day when the police found a still glazed and paranoid Isabella at a parking garage not too far from her home. Reports also claim that she was still sporting the pink sports bra and turquoise shorts she wore to commit the crime and that she wore more of her mother’s blood than the clothes themselves.

She was promptly taken into custody. An investigation that centered primarily on Isabella Guzman’s state of mind at the time of the gruesome murder was launched, and a doctor determined that Isabella Guzman was a Paranoid Schizophrenic who had been subject to delusions for years.

To give his diagnosis more authenticity, the doctor who had examined Isabella revealed that she had no idea that she was carrying out the crime against her mother, whom she wrongly identified as a woman named Cecilia who had to die for the fate of the world to be saved. The insanity and paranoid schizophrenic premise was the basis of Isabella Guzman’s not guilty plea after she was arraigned in court on September 5, 2013.

The doctor who examined her was also present to testify to that effect. In the end, the judge in charge of the case accepted George Brauchler’s, the DA for the 18th Judicial District of Colorado, recommendations on the matter and found Isabella Guzman not guilty due to her ailment.

He, however, had her committed to the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo. His sentencing included an order that she remain in the custody of the institution until she is certifiably stable enough not to be a danger to herself and others. That order has already seen Isabella spend over seven years of her life at the mental health institution.

Isabella Guzman’s Court Hearing Made Her Famous

Bizarrely, Isabella Guzman has somehow become very famous as a result of her rather despicable actions. It says a lot about the kind of people in the world today and the decadence of morals in today’s society. Around 7 years after Isabella was committed to the mental health institution, videos of her court antics started making the rounds on TikTok.

Isabella Guzman

These antics featured the comical and bizarre faces she made to the cameras in the courtroom during her arraignment. It also talked about the fact that Isabella refused to leave her jail cell on the day of her arraignment and had to be dragged out of it.

Before long, people were imitating those comical facial gestures and also making complimentary comments about her beautiful physical appearance. Some even went as far as setting up Facebook and Instagram fan pages in her honor while also stating crazily that she must have had an excellent reason for killing her mother.

To adequately depict the height of social media influence Isabella Guzman commands, it should be noted that one of such TikTok videos making the rounds attracted nearly 2 million views.

She Is Still A Resident Of The Mental Health Institute In Pueblo

Over the past 7 years or more, Isabella Guzman has remained a resident of the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo. She has stuck to her treatments and even declared herself okay in November 2020. In her words, she was not herself when she committed the crime that sent her there and has since been restored to full health.

She further stated that she was no longer a danger to herself or others because of the well-regimented treatments she had been getting. Her statements on her mental state of health have yet to be verified or backed up by a certified physician.

Still, Isabella’s claims that she is ready to rejoin society have received some sort of green light from a judge who has allowed her to embark on therapy sessions, group or otherwise, outside the state hospital.

She is, however, required to adhere to certain provisions and guidelines, including wearing a GPS tracker, most likely at any time she leaves the hospital. As part of her restitution, Isabella claimed that she would change what happened if she were allowed to do so.

Isabella Guzman Was Allegedly A Victim Of Abuse At The State Hospital

During an interview, Isabella Guzman spoke clearly about the fact that she was repeatedly abused by her family for several years. She also said that the abuse became even more unbearable when she decided to no longer be a part of the Jehovah’s Witnesses when she turned 14 years old.

She also claims that the fight she had with her mom that precipitated the email with the words “You will pay” had also left her injured with scars that were still visible to date. It would also appear that the same abuse followed Guzman to the mental hospital, where she allegedly filed a police report in 2015 against a male employee who had sexually assaulted her on more than one occasion, including a notable closet encounter.

She expressed the fears she experienced at the said employee’s hands. She also expressed hope that the perp was prosecuted during her interview, although that request may be hard to agree to because the DA’s office in Pueblo never received such reports from the police.

Isabella Guzman hopes above all else to regain her freedom, and her recent diagnosis and composure, coupled with recent developments at the mental institute, all point to the fact that the woman who stabbed her mother at least 79 times would soon regain her freedom. We all hope, for her sake and others, that it is safe for her to do so.

Key Facts About Isabella Guzman

  • Who is Isabella Guzman? Isabella Guzman is an American woman who became famous on the internet due to the live-streaming and uploading of her murder trial on TikTok. She was prosecuted for murdering her mother when she was 18 years old.
  • Why is Isabella Guzman famous? Isabella Guzman became popular after her trial for a murder case was live-streamed and uploaded on TikTok in 2013. Her trial videos have been viewed over 100 million times.
  • What crime did Isabella Guzman commit? Isabella Guzman was prosecuted for murdering her mother, Yun-Mi Hoy, by stabbing her multiple times in their home. She pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, with her defense arguing she was schizophrenic and mentally unhealthy.
  • What was the outcome of Isabella Guzman’s trial? Isabella Guzman was found not guilty by reason of insanity due to her schizophrenia. Instead of being sent to prison, she was ordered to stay at Pueblo State Hospital until she was no longer a threat to herself and the community.
  • What happened to Isabella Guzman after her trial? Isabella Guzman has been confined in a mental health institution since her trial. In November 2020, she stated that her schizophrenia was under control and petitioned for her release.
  • Who are Isabella Guzman’s parents? Isabella Guzman’s mother was Yun-Mi Hoy, and her father was Robert Guzman. After her parents divorced, Yun-Mi Hoy married Ryan Hoy, who became Isabella’s stepfather.
  • Why did Isabella Guzman murder her mother? The reasons behind Isabella Guzman’s murder of her mother are unclear. However, it’s known that she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and claimed to have suffered years of abuse at her parents’ hands. At the time of the murder, she believed she was killing a woman named Cecelia to save the world due to her delusions.
  • What is the status of Isabella Guzman’s release? Isabella Guzman’s release is still being reviewed. She claims to be healed and wants her freedom, but her release depends on her mental health evaluation affirmed by the court.
  • Why did Isabella Guzman’s videos on TikTok gain so much attention? Isabella Guzman’s videos on TikTok gained attention due to the shocking nature of her crime and her bizarre behavior in the courtroom. Many users on the platform found her trial intriguing, leading to her videos being watched over 100 million times.
  • How old was Isabella Guzman when she committed the murder? Isabella Guzman was 18 years old when she committed the murder in 2013.
  • How was Isabella Guzman caught after the murder? After murdering her mother, Isabella Guzman fled the scene. She was found by police the next day in a nearby parking garage, still wearing clothes covered in her mother’s blood.
  • What were the key arguments in Isabella Guzman’s defense during her trial? The key arguments in Isabella Guzman’s defense were her mental health condition and the assertion that she did not know right from wrong during the act. Her defense stated that she was schizophrenic and had been experiencing high levels of delusion for years.

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