California mom arrested for alleged murder of 9-year-old daughter after child’s body found in home

A California mother was arrested for the alleged murder of her nine-year-old daughter who was found dead in their Orange County home on Friday.

Khadiyjah Aliyyah Ali Pendergraph, 32, was arrested at a shopping center in the city of Aliso Viejo in connection with her child’s death and booked at the Orange County Jail.

Westminster Police responded just after noon on Friday to the 14100 block of Goldenwest St. in Westminster to conduct a welfare check following a call from a concerned family member, according to Fox 11.

Officers forced their way inside the home and discovered the girl’s body with signs of trauma, police said.

Pendergraph, who was not home when officers found the body, was then tracked down and arrested at the shopping center in Aliso Viejo.

“While police officers are exposed to tragedies on a daily basis, this murder is particularly disturbing, due to the senseless loss of a child allegedly at the hands of her own mother,” Westminster Chief of Police Darin Lenyi said.

The case remains under investigation.