Mother Kills 6-Year-Old Daughter and 11-Year-Old Sister in Shocking Double Murder-Suicide
In Maine, state police say that a mother killed two little girls and then killed herself at the end of last month.
Hope Marie West, 6, Harmony Mae West, 11, and Jennifer Barney, 37, were found dead in their apartment on Highland Avenue in Mechanic Falls, a small town that used to be a mill. The bodies were discovered on July 27.
The youngest girl would have been 7 years old when the sad news came out.
The Mechanic Falls Police Department said in a press statement that police were first called to the house because of a report of a stolen U-Haul truck that had not been returned. Later that Saturday afternoon, after 3:30 p.m., the car was found.
The person who rented the truck was at that address, so the officer and a deputy from the Androscoggin Sheriff’s Office tried to get in touch with her, Mechanic Falls Police Chief Jeffrey Goss said in a statement. “It was found that the resident, an adult woman, had died inside her home during their investigation.” When police went into the house, they found two dead children inside.
To follow the normal procedure for this type of case, Goss said, the case was then given to the Maine State Police.
The pets of the family were taken care of by an animal control officer, according to the cops. A neighbor told the Sun Journal that the family had a small white dog and a Doberman pinscher.
Within a few days, investigators concluded that the crime scene was the scene of a double murder-suicide. But neither the police nor the family members of the victims have come up with a reason for the violence.
An autopsy showed that one of the girls died from multiple stab wounds. The autopsy showed that the other girl died from several different injuries that could not be recognized. The killer herself did not die, because the state’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said that more tests were needed to make that decision.
“Everyone is shocked.” Feeling upset. Davina Wilcox, a grandmother, told WGME in Portland, Maine, that she was “devastated.” “In a million years, I never thought I’d be burying my grandchildren.”
Wilcox buried her 31-year-old son in December 2019. He was the father of the two girls and the husband of their killer.
“He loved spending time with his family and friends and playing the guitar,” James Lee West’s obituary says. “But his two young daughters, Hope and Harmony, were his world.”
The sad woman talked about each child who had died one by one.
Wilcox told the TV station, “Everyone who knew them loved them.” Harmony liked unicorns a lot. Pink was her favorite color. She liked to dress up and put on makeup. Made a lot of friends in school.
Going on, Wilcox seemed to fight back tears as he said, “Hopey.” “She was really sweet. She liked cats. Everything to do with cats and kittens. Purple was her favorite color. She loved her sister very much.
A GoFundMe page, which was set up by the girls’ uncle and has since been taken down, raised just over $10,000 for the family’s funeral costs.
The fundraiser says, “Harmony and Hope were the best of friends, and we are thankful they had each other through the hard times they faced as young people.” “The terrible news of their death has broken our hearts.”
The girls were born in Lewiston, which is not far away. They both went to Elm Street School, a public school for kids in pre-K through sixth grade.
People who live nearby told WGME and the Sun Journal that Harmony and Hope usually played on their trampoline every day.
“It was always so nice to see those little blonde heads jumping up and down on that trampoline, and I’ll miss that,” named Devon as a neighbor told the TV station.
Devin’s daughter Zoe said, “Yeah, my nice friend.” “We played games together.” We had fun together on the field.
The girls allegedly stopped going to summer school a few weeks ago and haven’t been seen playing outside at all since.
Even though no one knows why there was such a huge loss, the girls’ grandma has some thoughts about those last weeks and moments.
Wilcox told WGME, “We would have helped if she had said anything.” “Everyone could have helped.”