He was a military man, stationed in another country when he met a sex worker—she was a local woman fourteen years younger than him. Two years later, they got married. She had a daughter from a previous relationship. The daughter was six years old when they met.
Back in the U.S. and three years into their marriage, they had a daughter. Four years after their daughter’s birth, they divorced—a bitter, lengthy divorce.
The father was moving to another state. The mother agreed to move there as well—then she changed her mind. Nobody knew she had purchased a gun the month before the scheduled move. With the mother refusing to move, a judge gave the father custody of his young daughter, enabling her to move with her father. This enraged his ex-wife.
Nine days after purchasing a gun, the mother gave her two daughters melatonin gummy bears and waited until they were asleep. She shot the oldest daughter first—several times. After she shot her young daughter, she fled her apartment. The youngest daughter (age five) died immediately. The older daughter somehow called 911 and told the dispatcher her mother had shot her.
While the oldest daughter was speaking with an emergency dispatcher, the mother was leaving her ex-husband a voice mail message telling him what she’d done and that she hated him. Her 15-year-old daughter died at the hospital.
A jury convicted the 37-year-old mother of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a crime. At trial, some jurors who’d to listened to the 911 call made by the older daughter felt traumatized and asked for therapy.
The sentencing judge gave the mother two 39-year terms in prison. Unlike most sentences that run concurrently (at the same time), the judge in this case said her sentence would run consecutively (one after the other), 78 years in prison. During the sentencing, the judge expressed his sorrow for the girls,
“Mothers and fathers have many responsibilities, but none is graver than keeping their children safe ... Tragically, their mother became the instrument of their death.”
Also at the sentencing, the mother lashed out at her ex-husband, screaming, “Why did you leave me alone with the girls? None of this would have happened!”
The 52-year-old grief-stricken father conveyed in an interview that the girls were the most important part of his life.
Source: Commonwealth of Virginia, Law & Crime, Fayetteville Observer, People, New York Post, Wikipedia, Daily Mail