A 32-year-old woman from Southern California's Westminster was charged for drowning her 9-year-old daughter in a bathtub on Tuesday.
The accused, Khadiyjah Pendergraph was arrested last Friday in an Aliso Viejo grocery store parking lot, approximately 20 miles away from their shared apartment where the child's decomposing body was found on the same day.
Reportedly, her daughter had cerebral palsy and couldn’t speak.
“Words simply do not exist to express the utter heartbreak knowing this little girl could not even scream for help as her mother pushed her underwater and cut her life so tragically and so unnecessarily short,” District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in the statement.
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Pendergraph, charged with murder, could face a sentence of 25 years to life in state prison if convicted. During her initial court appearance on Tuesday, she did not enter a plea, and her defense was assigned to the public defender’s office. She is currently held without bail.
The motive for the alleged killing has not been disclosed by authorities.
The girl's father, who was divorced from Pendergraph, had planned to pick up his daughter on Thanksgiving. When he arrived at his ex-wife's apartment, he discovered the locked door and no response. Concerned, he contacted the police on Friday to report his daughter missing and mentioned receiving troubling messages from Pendergraph.
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The girl apparently was killed on 19 November, five days before her body was discovered, prosecutors said. Further details are awaited.
