Rachel Henry (22), is in custody after police say she admitted to killing her children, Zane(3), Mireya(2) and Catalaya(7-month).
This case started Monday evening with a 911 call that prompted officers to visit the home near 24th Street and Southerns Avenue.
Officers found the three children unresponsive and tried to do CPR but the kids were already gone.
The family moved to Arizona over the summer from Oklahoma.
Rachel will be booked later today on 3 counts of 1st degree murder.
It’s still unclear how they died. That will be up to the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office to decide.
Police say they first received an “unknown trouble call” from a relative of the children. When police arrived at the home, they were greeted by three adults — Henry, the children’s father, and another relative.
The kids were in a living room area just off the front door. “We didn’t have to go look for the children,” Fortune said.
All three of the children were unresponsive.
Officers performed CPR on them. Fire crews then arrived at the home and paramedics also provided first aid. But sadly, all efforts were unsuccessful, and the children were pronounced dead.
During a news conference late Monday night, Fortune said that police were told that the children were “ill” earlier in the day. She also said the children showed no obvious signs of trauma.Fortune said the kids lived at the home with their parents and two other adults. At this point, police have not determined what happened in the moments, hours and days leading up to the children’s deaths. They are working to determine what prompted Henry’s actions.
“As you can imagine, this case is very complex,” she said Tuesday morning as police were wrapping up the on-scene portion of their investigation. “There’s a lot of moving parts to it. We are comfortable in saying now that the mother is responsible for the death of the children..”
It was an extremely difficult scene to witness for first responders. Fire crews who responded to the call reportedly did not work the rest of the night due to being traumatized by the incident. “It’s very difficult,” Fortune said.“We’re trying to determine why this occurred,” Fortune said. “Any time you have three children that are deceased … in that aspect, it is suspicious.”
Initial Phoenix police post:
https://www.facebook.com/301030083305579/posts/3330107333731157/?d=n
Rachel Henry, the woman who admitted to killing her 3 small children last night in Phoenix, made her initial appearance in front of a judge.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157001781207014&id=145184572013
The affidavit:
Affidavit transcribed:
On January 20th, 2020 at 1920 hours, officers with the Phoenix police department responded to a call of an unknown trouble at 2520 East Vineyard Road.
Dispatch advised an unidentified female was calling to report three chlidren under the age of three years old were found deceased inside the residence. Officers and fire personnel responded within several minutes and determined all three children, a three year old male, a one year old female, a seven month old female were deceased.
The father of the children [redacted] and the mother, Rachel Henry, were both on scene and transported to the Phoenix Police Headquarters for further interview.
The homeowner and [redacted] aunt , [redacted] was also transported. Audio/video mirandized interviews were conducted with all the parties involved.
[Redacted] acknowledged that Rachel had a methamphetamine addiction and had been acting strange the past several days. [Redacted] last saw the children alive at approximately 1400 hours. [Redacted] left the residence to pick up [redacted] from work. Rachel told [redacted] she would put the children down for a nap while she was gone. [Redacted]returned home at approximately 1500 hours after picking up [redacted] at work. [Redacted] was home by the time [redacted] came back.
[Redacted] reported seeing the three year old male and the one year old female sleeping on the couch and Rachel holding the seven month old female.
Rachel told [redacted] approximately 30 minutes later, she was going into her room to put the seven month old female down for nap. [Redacted] did not see the seven month old female awake after Rachel took her into her bedroom.
Rachel admitted to smothering each child starting with the one year old female. Rachel was playing with the one year old female and wrestling on top of her. Rachel felt the one year old females breathing was obstructed but continued to impede her breath by placing her hand over the one year old females mouth. Rachel stated that the one year old female kicked as she did so while the three year old male yelled no at her in an attempt to get her to stop. Rachel knew she had killed the one year old female when she stopped kicking Rachel.
The three year old male attempted to help the one year old female by punching Rachel to no avail. Rachel next chased the three year old male and stated she was interrupted when [redacted] and [redacted] returned to the residence. Shortly after [redacted] spent some time playing with the three year old male, Rachel took the three year old male into a back bedroom where she changed his underpants. As Rachel did so, she placed the three year old male on the floor of the bedroom, straddled him with one of her legs and placed her hand over his nose and mouth. Rachel described singing to the three year old male as he scratching her chest and pinching her while she placed her hand over his nose/mouth. Rachel used her weight on top of the three year old male, straddling him, to smother him until he died.
Rachel fed the seven month old female a bottle in her bedroom until she fell asleep. Rachel sang her a song as she placed her hand over her face and impeded her breath. Rachel sang to the seven month old female until she became unconscious and died.
Rachel placed all of the children in a position on the living room couch as if they were taking a nap. Rachel did not tell either [redacted] or [redacted] what happened
The children are on Maricopa County Medical Examiner site. No COD yet.
Sources