A woman from Fountain Valley has been charged with murder in the death of her 9-year-old daughter who was nonverbal and confined to a wheelchair, drowning her in a bathtub and leaving her body to decompose for several days, officials said.
Khadiyjah Aliyyah Pendergraph, 32, was arrested last Friday at a grocery store in Aliso Viejo, the same day the girl’s body was discovered.
The girl’s father, who is divorced from Pendergraph, called police earlier that day to request a welfare check on the girl after receiving “concerning messages” from her mother.
When he attempted to pick the girl up for Thanksgiving, the apartment where his ex-wife lived was locked and no one responded to answer the door.
On Tuesday, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office released horrifying details about the girl’s death, alleging that she was drowned in her own bathtub and then left there for days while her body decomposed.
In a press release issued Tuesday, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer described the girl’s final moments in brutal detail.
“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,” Spitzer said. “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.”
The D.A.’s Office said Pendergraph has since tried to paint her daughter as being suicidal, claiming she tried to kill herself on more than one occasion.
Pendergraph has been charged with murder and faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison if convicted, Spitzer said.