Tourists stabbed to death in Atlantic City identified

ATLANTIC CITY - May 23, 2012 (WPVI) -- Authorities have identified the two Canadian tourists who were stabbed to death earlier this week in Atlantic City as a mother and daughter.

The Atlantic County prosecutor said the victims are 80-year-old Po Lin Wan and 47-year-old Alice Mei See Leung from Scarborough, Ontario.

The women were attacked around 10:00 a.m. Monday in the 1900 block of Pacific Avenue. Investigators say Antoinette Pelzer, 44, of Philadelphia, stabbed them multiple times with a 12 inch butcher knife.

An autopsy showed the older woman died from being stabbed in the heart, while her daughter bled to death.

Leung was the first target, Atlantic County Prosecutor Ted Housel said, while Wan was stabbed while coming to her aid.

Pelzer appeared in court on Tuesday afternoon for a preliminary hearing. Pelzer laughed, grimaced and made faces as she was arraigned on two murder charges.

Gladys Pelzer, Antoinette's mother, previously told Action News her daughter suffers from Schizophrenia and may have been off her medication.

"I feel sorry about the people she hurt all because she wanted a cigarette. That's what this was all about. And she didn't have no money to buy cigarettes," Gladys Pelzer said earlier this week.

Gladys says she thought her daughter was in Cleveland where she'd been getting treatment.

Antoinette Pelzer is being held on $1.5 million cash bail.

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