Police: Mother Labeled Suspect In Daughter's Murder
BLOOMINGDALE, Ill. (STMW) - The mother of a 4-year-old girl stabbed to death in suburban Bloomingdale has been labeled a suspect in her daughter's brutal slaying, authorities said Thursday.
The 43-year-old woman remained hospitalized Thursday in good condition with what officials have said appear to be self-inflicted knife wounds.
No charges have been filed against her, but she remained under police guard at Adventist GlenOaks Hospital as authorities continue to investigate what they have said may be a murder and attempted suicide.
"Charges are pending," said Bloomingdale Police Chief Frank Giammarese, calling the woman a suspect in her daughter's death.
Her child, Magdalene "Maggie" Webber, died after being stabbed so violently in the throat that the blow nearly severed her head, a law enforcement source said.
The youngster was discovered in a bathroom of her grandmother's Bloomingdale home, where she had been staying recently with her mother, authorities said.
A relative called police about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday after finding the girl and her mother in the home.
Blood was smeared on a wall of the bathroom and several words were scrawled in the fluid, a source said.
The woman had been engaged in a custody battle over the girl with the child's out-of-state father, the source said.
Giammarese wouldn't confirm whether there was an ongoing custody issue over the child, but called her murder "a horrible thing."
"It's a very sad, sad state of affairs," Giammarese said of the slaying. "When you see the death of a 4-year-old like this, it's just a horrible thing."
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