California mother arrested after police find her 9-year-old daughter dead in home
11/27/2023 12:10 pm PST
WESTMINSTER, Calif. (TCD) -- Police arrested a mother on suspicion of killing her 9-year-old daughter after they forced entry into her home and found the child deceased last week.
On Friday, Nov. 24, shortly after noon, the Westminster Police Department responded to a home on the 14100 block of Goldenwest Street after a concerned family member requested a welfare check. Once there, officers forced their way inside the residence, where they found a 9-year-old girl dead with "obvious signs of trauma."
No one else was in the home at the time, and police believe it was an isolated incident.
Further investigation revealed that the victim's mother, Khadiyjah Pendergraph, allegedly killed her daughter. Police later found Pendergraph at an Aliso Viejo shopping center and booked her into the Orange County Jail on a charge of murder.
Westminster Chief of Police Darin Lenyi said in a statement, "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."
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