OC Mom Charged With Killing 9-Year-Old Daughter

WESTMINSTER, CA — A 32-year-old woman was charged Tuesday with killing her 9-year-old daughter in Westminster, court records show.

Khadiyjah Aliyyah Pendergraph was charged with one count of murder and was scheduled to be arraigned sometime Tuesday afternoon in the jail courtroom in Santa Ana.

Westminster Police officers were dispatched at around noon Friday to a home in the 14100 block of Goldenwest Street for a welfare check on the 9-year-old girl following a "tip from a concerned family member," police said.

Police went to the residence in the 14100 block of Goldenwest Street for a welfare check after receiving the tip, and when officers forced their way into the home, they found the child dead with obvious signs of trauma, Sgt. Edward Esqueda told ABC 7.

Pendergraph was initially a "person of interest," who was arrested at a shopping center in Aliso Viejo, according to a previous Patch report.

The Orange County District Attorney's Office said the victim --Victoria -- was a wheelchair user who was non-verbal and alleged the mother drowned her in a bathtub. The criminal complaint alleges Victoria was killed on Nov. 19.

The girl's father called police Friday to report her missing and request a welfare check on his daughter after he received ``concerning messages'' from his ex-wife, prosecutors alleged.

When the father attempted to pick up his daughter on Thanksgiving, the apartment where she lived with her mother was locked and no one answered, prosecutors said.

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Authorities have not yet released the name of the victim.

Westminster Police Chief Darin Lenyi told ABC, "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. The members of the WPD grieve with the victim's family and extend our deepest condolences."

Anyone with information about the child's death can call police at (714) 548-3773, or Orange County Crime Stoppers, a confidential police hotline, at (855) 847-6287 or email www.occrimestoppers.org.