A young Michigan mother was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and child abuse after allegedly confessing to suffocating her daughter, whom she previously claimed was suffering from a rare fatal virus, with a bag.
Kent County sheriff’s deputies said they responded to a 911 call Sept. 3 at the Cedar Rapids home of Irene Aiyana Whitehead, 27, where they discovered the 2-year-old, Ryleigh, unresponsive. The mother told Grand Rapids ABC affiliate WZZM in September 2023 that Ryleigh was battling a rare and fatal parainfluenza variant that her brother, Leonard, also contracted and died from at the age of 2 in 2021.
Court documents obtained by WOOD, an NBC affiliate in Grand Rapids, reveal the mother plainly confessed to killing Ryleigh by suffocating her with a bag, police claim, before telling detectives: ” I wanted to kill her.” Authorities also claim the mother searched “how hard is it to prove if cause of death is suffocation by bag in toddler” online less than a week after her daughter’s death…