Sunday 5 June 2011

FILICIDE (multiple): Colorado: Kelli Murphy charged with first degree murder

May 28, 2011 DENVER - On the same day the funerals were held for her children, 41-year-old Kelli Murphy appeared in court to face two counts of first-degree murder.
Just after 8:30 a.m. on Friday, Murphy walked into the courtroom dressed in a gray jumpsuit with bandages still on her wrists. According to police, she tried to kill herself after allegedly murdering her children.
Friday morning, she waived her right of the reading of her formal charges. The judge ordered that the court's record of actions be unsealed. As a result, the charges made against Kelli Murphy were made available.
On those court actions, Murphy is charged with two counts of murder, two counts of murder of a victim less than 12 years of age and two counts of reckless child abuse.
Early Monday morning, Castle Rock Police responded to the home in the 200 block of Cherry Street, near Mikelson Boulevard and East Enderud Road, when a woman told 911 dispatchers she was going to commit suicide.
When officers arrived, they found 9-year-old Liam and 6-year-old Madigan dead in the bedrooms. Both of the children went to Rock Ridge Elementary School.
After authorities arrived at her home Monday, Kelli Murphy was taken to the hospital with injuries to her wrists.
The funeral for both of the children was held on Friday at Heritage Evangelical Free Church in Castle Rock. Services ran for more than an hour-and-a-half, and were attended by friends, family and many of Liam and Madigan's classmates and teachers from Rock Ridge Elementary School. The principal of the school also attended.
In court documents 9Wants to Know found on Monday, Kelli Murphy accuses her husband, Robert Murphy, of abusing their children.
On Tuesday, the Douglas County Coroner's Office performed autopsies on Liam and Madigan and could not determine a cause of death.
A candlelight vigil was held Thursday night in honor of Liam and Madigan. Several hundred people turned out for the vigil to remember them.
Friends, family, neighbors and community members gathered in Founders Park, less than one mile from the home where the children were found dead.
Robert Eric Murphy, the father of the victims and estranged husband of the mother accused of killing them, did not speak at the vigil. He was visibly grief stricken and surrounded by a small group of family and close friends.
The judge on Friday set a mandatory protection order against Kelli Murphy so that she cannot contact the children's father.
Madigan's kindergarten teacher, Salome Raj, read a poem about the young girl at Thursday night's vigil, saying the girl loved to dance and make people smile.
"I will miss her but I'm glad I had the honor of being part of her short life," Raj said.
Nicole Dunn lives in the Murphy's neighborhood and says Liam and Madigan could often be seen outside playing.
"We miss you," she said during the vigil, tears streaming down her face. "It is really just affecting everyone."
http://www.9news.com/rss/story.aspx?storyid=200415

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