Mom suffocated 3 kids, posed them to look asleep, AZ officials say. She’s sentenced
A mom accused of killing her three young children “one-by-one” was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of first-degree murder in Arizona, prosecutors said.
Rachel Henry, 27, is accused of suffocating the children, all under the age of 4, in January 2020 in Phoenix, according to a Feb. 14 news release from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
After the children were dead, Henry “placed them on a couch so it would appear they were sleeping,” prosecutors said.
Henry’s attorney declined to comment on the case when reached Feb. 14 by McClatchy News.
According to prosecutors, Henry first suffocated her 1-year-old daughter while they were playing by placing her hand over the girl’s mouth.
Henry’s son, who was 3, “saw what was happening and tried to stop his mother by hitting and yelling at her,” according to prosecutors, who said Henry “then tried to grab the boy but was interrupted by the arrival of the children’s father and great-aunt.”
Later, Henry “said she was putting the boy down for a nap” and took the 3-year-old “to a bedroom where she sang him a lullaby and suffocated him as the boy fought back,” prosecutors said.
Henry then fed a bottle to her 7-month-old daughter, suffocating the baby girl with her hand once she’d fallen asleep, according to prosecutors.
At some point, the father discovered the kids had died, AZFamily reported, and the great-aunt called the police, according to prosecutors.
The three children were identified as Zane Henry, Mireya Henry and Catalaya Rios, McClatchy News previously reported, citing KSAZ-TV.
Henry and her fiance had moved to Arizona from Oklahoma, the Arizona Republic reported. Henry was hit hard by the death of her mother in 2018 and had struggled with drugs and lost custody of her kids for a time, the outlet reported.
In the news release, County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said, “I’ve dedicated my career to protecting children, and it’s hard to comprehend how any parent could take the life of their own. Thank you to the prosecution team for ensuring justice was served for these three innocent children.”
This story was originally published February 14, 2025 at 3:42 PM with the headline "Mom suffocated 3 kids, posed them to look asleep, AZ officials say. She’s sentenced."
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