Mother charged for drowning her 6-year-old daughter

A mother who confessed to killing her 6-year-old daughter at the family’s Minnesota home on Tuesday told police she did it because she thought the girl had been molested.

Kayla Marie Jones, 25, has been charged with second-degree murder after she was arrested outside her home in St Paul.

Police responding to a report that a girl had drowned in a bathtub, arrived to find Jones standing outside the property. She was soaking wet and showing no emotion.

Daughter Azaria Jones was taken to a local children’s hospital, but was later pronounced dead.

The local medical examiner’s office has found the cause of death to be freshwater drowning and ruled the death a homicide.

Detectives say Jones told them that she believed her daughter had been molested because she saw her sleeping with her hand down her pants.

Jones said she was also molested as a child and wanted to ‘save her [Azaria] from this world,’ according to criminal charges filed on Wednesday.

She also told investigators that said she hadn’t slept in two days and had been was watching TV when she heard a voice say ‘Save the child.’

Jones said she placed her daughter’s entire clothed body in the bathtub face down, and held the child as she thrashed and kicked.

She allegedly told investigators that she held the girl under water for ‘a minute or two’ until she stopped moving. Jones said she knew she was drowning her daughter but couldn’t stop.

Jones made her first court appearance on Wednesday, during which she wore ‘a self-injury prevention vest.’

Ramsey County District Court Judge Shawn Bartsh ordered Jones to undergo a mental health evaluation to see if she’s competent enough to go forward with court proceedings.

Bail was set at $2 million. Jones will remain in custody and her next court appearance is set for January 7.

[Dailymail UK]