A Chicago mother murdered her 5-year-old daughter while the child’s 8-year-old sister watched through a keyhole, it has been reported. Simone Austin is said to have sliced the throat of Serenity Arrington at the family home while the little girl’s older sister screamed and cried from another room.
- It’s unclear what prompted the murder. At Austin’s bond hearing held Tuesday, September 29, it was revealed that the mother asked the older child to leave the room before using a serrated knife to cut Serenity’s throat. The older sibling then came back in the room screaming and crying and tried to pull Austin off Serenity by her hair as her mother stabbed the younger girl repeatedly.
- The children’s grandfather soon returned from getting coffee. He wasn’t home at the time of the murder but when he returned to the property to find the front door was locked, the older sibling came to him running and screaming at the back door that “her mommy killed her little sister.”
- Austin then brought Serenity outside and laid her in the grass. Neighbors reported seeing the child bleeding profusely and immediately called paramedics. She was taken to Stroger Hospital of Cook County, where she was pronounced dead from multiple stab wounds. It was reported that Austin was crying outside the property, saying “she shouldn’t have done this.”
- Serenity was viciously murdered. Prosecutors revealed that one of the stab wounds the little girl suffered nearly went all the way through her neck and out the back. No explanation was given by Austin for why she killed her child.
- The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services had been called to the house before. While it’s unclear why exactly, there was a history of domestic violence. “We’ve had previous calls there for domestic violence where the mother was the victim of domestic violence and other people in the family called,” Chicago Police Supt. David Brown said on Monday.
- Austin has been denied bond. Investigators are also looking into whether or not Austin has a history of mental illness. She walked right over to police to be arrested and went willingly into custody.
