Katy HollowayPHOENIX, AZ – Just a few months ago, a young mother killed her three children, all under four years of age, by smothering them while singing nursery rhymes. The woman, Rachel Henry, now has a trial date set for September 30.
Father Finds His 3 Kids Dead
The father of the children, Pedro Rios, said to KTVB7 that it was “a normal day” before the tragedy happened in January of this year.
The children’s Great-Aunt Pearla Rebolledo had just brought him home from work. That meant Rachel Henry was alone with the kids for a brief period of time. This is when she began her methodical killing of 3-year-old Zane Henry, 1-year-old Miraya Henry, and 7-month-old Catalaya Rios.
Court documents reveal that Henry began to suffocate Miraya when Rebolledo left at around 2 p.m.
She managed to kill the 1-year-old before Rebolledo and Rios returned. Henry told them that Miraya was taking a nap in the other room, and they thought nothing of it.
Rios then reportedly fell asleep on the couch next to Zane and Catalaya after the family played with them for a bit. But when he woke up, he discovered what Henry had done.
Instead of next to him where she had been, Rios saw his new baby was under the covers across the couch from him. The father walked over and pulled back the covers.
“I found my daughter…just laying there, with foam coming out of her mouth and blood,” he said.
Rios told the outlet that the devastation is unbearable.
“I’m not perfect. I’ve done drugs most of my life, and I never got to the point where I wanted to kill anybody,” he said. “I might be a lot of things, but I never, ever, never in my life would I hurt my kids.”
He added, “She knew that my kids were my life. Did she do it to try to hurt me?…I want to hate her, but…I can’t believe she would do this to me and my family.”
Mother ‘scared’ when she killed her kids
Recently, after Henry reached out to the family multiple times, Rebolledo finally agreed to speak with her over a video call from her jail in Phoenix. Rios said they had not yet been ready to speak with her after her gruesome actions. However, Rios did not want to join the conversation.
The call is up on KTVB7, and in it, the kids’ great-aunt asks Henry what drove her to commit this horrible crime.
Henry replied, “I didn’t know what was going on. I told you I felt like I was losing my mind, because I didn’t understand why you guys, why everyone was acting the way they were.”
Henry also admitted she was using drugs at the time, saying she was “freaking out and didn’t know what to do.”
“I was scared…I don’t remember doing it…because I don’t…it really wasn’t me,” she said.
Cameron Norris
Erin Long
