California mother charged with murder, accused of drowning 9-year-old disabled daughter
A 32-year-old mother was charged with murder Tuesday, Nov. 28, after prosecutors accused her of drowning her 9-year-old daughter, who was disabled, in a bathtub at their Westminster home and leaving the girl there for several days before her body was discovered by police, authorities said.
Khadiyjah Aliyyah Pendergraph, of Westminster, made her first court appearance Tuesday, but did not enter a plea, according to court records. She was scheduled to return Dec. 15, where she may enter a plea to the charge.
Pendergraph was arrested Friday in a grocery store parking lot in Aliso Viejo, hours after police found her daughter’s body decomposing in the bathtub at their home in the 14100 block of Goldenwest Street, said Kimberly Edds, Orange County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman.
Pendergraph claimed to have attempted suicide on more than one occasion after her daughter’s death.
Her daughter, identified by prosecutors as Victoria, was confined to a wheelchair and could not speak, Edds said.
The girl’s father had arrived to pick up their daughter as scheduled on Thanksgiving, but the apartment door was locked and no one answered, Edds said.
He called police Friday, Nov. 24, to report his daughter missing and asked police to check the home after receiving “concerning messages from his ex-wife regarding their daughter,” Edds said.
Police arrived and forced entry into the home just past noon before making the discovery, Sgt. Eddie Esqueda said. No one else was inside the home.
“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 unnecessarily short,” DA Todd Spitzer said in a statement.
A motive, and why Pendergraph was in Aliso Viejo, was not known. A more specific timeline between when the girl was killed and when her body was found was not disclosed, though court records listed a violation date as Nov. 19, five days before police said they found the girl’s body.
Pendergraph faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in state prison if convicted of the charge, prosecutors said.