A California woman who was arrested on Friday for the death of her 9-year-old daughter was formally charged with murder on Tuesday.
The victim’s father had requested a welfare check, saying he received concerning text messages from his ex-wife, Khadiyjah Pendergraph, 32, regarding their daughter. The father also claimed he went to pick up his daughter on Thanksgiving to find the doors were locked and nobody was answering the door, according to KABC.
Pendergraph’s daughter reportedly could not speak and used a wheelchair. Pendergraph is believed to have drowned the girl in a bathtub days before Orange County police discovered her on Friday.
“While families across America sat down to Thanksgiving dinner with their loved ones, this little disabled girl’s lifeless body was left to rot in a bathtub after being drowned by her own mother,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer commented, per KABC.
Pendergraph was arrested outside a grocery store in Aliso Viejo hours after police forced entry into her home and found her daughter’s body. She claimed she tried to kill herself at least once after killing her daughter, according to the Orange County Register.
The news outlet reported that court records suggest Pendergraph killed her daughter five days before she was found. A motive has not been disclosed.
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