(KRON) — A 10-year-old girl found her mother’s lifeless body after violence broke out inside a San Mateo home, prosecutors said.
The girl made the tragic discovery on August 4 when she was dropped off at home. Her mother, 37-year-old Kirsten Castle, had been strangled to death in the family room, according to prosecutors with the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
Castle was nine months pregnant. Her boyfriend, 32-year-old Andrew Coleman, was quickly identified as the suspected killer, according to police.
Coleman was the father of Castle’s unborn baby, investigators said.
Police said Coleman murdered his girlfriend and unborn child inside their duplex apartment at 1314 South B Street. After the killings, he stole a safe from the apartment with $37,000 cash inside, and stole the victim’s car, according to the DA’s office.
San Mateo police used automatic license plate reading cameras to track the stolen car as Coleman drove south to Southern California. Police stopped the car in West Covina, Calif., and arrested the boyfriend.