Dad stabs son to death in fight over dirty dishes

Friday, June 21, 2024 - An Indiana man stabbed his own son in the heart during an argument over dirty dishes in the sink, police say.

The incident happened on Friday, June 14, at their home.

Timothy Ray Lisby, 59, faces an initial charge of aggravated battery and is being held without bond, according to Marion County Jail records.

A family friend who witnessed the grisly death of 31-year-old Christopher Allen Lisby on June 14 believes the father should face murder charges, he told Fox 59.

The case has been turned over to homicide detectives since the battery charge was filed and their investigation is ongoing.

Jeremiah Green told the outlet that after bickering over a pile of dirty dishes, Lisby and his son wrestled each other to the floor inside the mobile home on Dogie Road in Indianapolis.

Then, the father lashed out with cutlery.

“Tim had a spoon in his hand and started stabbing Chris with it,” Green told the outlet. “Chris said, ‘Jeremiah get the spoon out of his hand,’ so I did.”

Then the father grabbed hold of another weapon,, Green said.

“Tim ran in the kitchen and grabbed something shiny, something sharp … and pushed it into Chris’s chest as hard as he could,” Green said.

Green dialed 911, according to the outlet, and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers arrived at the scene. There, they found the son with a “bleeding wound to the chest” in the living room, according to an affidavit filed in the case and obtained by Law & Crime.

Christopher Lisby was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he stabilized after surgery on his lacerated heart, police said, but succumbed to his injuries the next day.

After Green called for help, he said the father realized the gravity of the situation and tried to render first aid to his son.

“He was putting pressure on Chris and saying, ‘Don’t die. Don’t die,'” Green told Fox 59. “Since that day I’ve been crying, and I can’t sleep.”

Green said he will testify against Lisby in court, and that he will do whatever is necessary to “put him down.”

“Chris was my friend. I loved him to death,” Green said.

“I’ve never seen anyone bleed that bad and that really hurt me. When he stabbed Chris in the heart, it’s like he stabbed mine.”

“He killed the only friend I have in the world. He’s gonna pay for what he did,” Green told Fox 59.

The father is next due in court on June 21, according to online jail records.