WESTMINSTER, Calif. – A California mother has been taken into custody and booked into jail on suspicion of murder after her 9-year-old daughter was found dead in their Orange County home Friday afternoon.
Officers with the Westminster Police Department responded to the 14100 block of Goldenwest St. shortly after 12 p.m. Friday, Nov. 24 regarding a welfare check that was phone in to police by a concerned family member, FOX 11 Los Angeles reported.
Upon arrival, officers forced entry to gain access to the residence and discovered the young girl’s body with obvious signs of trauma. The girl’s mother was not present.
Police began to search for the woman, identified as Khadiyjah Aliyyah Ali Pendergraph, 32, and eventually found her in South Orange County at a shopping center in Aliso Viejo.
Pendergraph was arrested and booked at the Orange County Jail on the charge of murder, officials said. No further details were immediately available, although Westminster Police Chief Darin Lenyi commented on the “senseless loss of a child.”
“While police officers are exposed to tragedies on a daily basis, this murder is particularly disturbing, due to the senseless loss of a child allegedly at the hands of her own mother,” Lenyi said.
