More details emerge, motive a mystery in Cobb teen’s stabbing death

Abbey Herbert, 17, died and her cousin Olivia Smith, 18, is charged with her murder.

On Saturday morning, 17-year-old Abbey Hebert and 18-year-old Olivia Smith picked up breakfast from Chick-fil-A. Cousins by marriage and, by most accounts, close friends, the duo went back to Hebert’s Acworth home and dished out the goodies to “other occupants,” who departed shortly after.

The next person to see the teens was a neighbor — who told police he watched as Smith mounted her cousin in the front yard and stabbed her repeatedly with a kitchen knife.

Police documents obtained Monday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution suggested some kind of "argument" preceded the deadly tussle. But plenty of questions remained.

“We have no established motive at this time,” Cobb County police spokesman Sgt. Dana Pierce said.

According to arrest and search warrants, Smith and Hebert returned from Chick-fil-A to the home on Blowing Wind Court and, after the other unidentified people left, went to the back porch and “smoked suspected marijuana.”

They returned inside and began eating before “an argument ensued” and “a physical fight broke out.”

“[Smith] grabbed a knife out of the butcher block in the kitchen area and stabbed [Hebert],” a search warrant alleged. “[Hebert] fled out the front door of the residence, with [Smith] giving chase.”

Hebert fell between her house and a neighbor’s. A man walking by saw Smith on top of her, “stabbing her numerous times.”

“The neighbors heard a lot,” Pierce said. “There were a lot of things being yelled and hollered.”

Police arrived on-scene around 8:50 a.m.

Smith later spoke with detectives, reportedly admitting that she stabbed Hebert and saying “she was under the influence of an unknown drug, possibly marijuana.” Her interview, however, “did not shed light on any motive,” Pierce said.

Smith, a Canton resident, has been charged with felony murder and is being held at the Cobb County jail without bond.

Grief counselors were on-hand Monday at Allatoona High School, where Hebert was known as a smiling, talented member of the softball team. Two days earlier, hundreds of students had gathered at the school’s football stadium for a vigil in her honor.

Hebert’s father, Steve, remembered her as “a wonderful child that just loved life.”

“She was the only child I had,” he told The AJC.