DORA BETANCOURT - 11 yo - / Charged: Unnamed - 14 yo - stepsister - Mundelein, IL

Girl, 14, 'stabbed little sister 39 times because she didn't appreciate everything she had done for her'

A 14-year-old girl has been charged as a juvenile with first-degree murder after allegedly stabbing her little sister in their Chicago home on Tuesday morning.

The 11-year-old victim, who not been named, had more than 30 stab wounds across her neck, chest and arms, and three slashes to her face.

The teenage suspect initially claimed a stranger had broken in, but she allegedly confessed after police revealed they had found a strand of the killer's hair in the victim's hand.


Crime scene: An 11-year-old girl was found stabbed to death in her bedroom in this Mundelein, Chicago home

At a hearing today, the girls' mother wept as prosecutors claimed that the older girl had set her alarm early and made her attack while her little sister was still in bed in their Mundelein home.

Using a kitchen knife, the teenager is said to have stabbed her half-sister 39 times while yelling that the younger girl didn't appreciate everything that she did for her.

The older girl said she had made dinner six times that week and that her sister made her mad after hitting her the night before, the Chicago Sun Times reported.

Their mother was out of the home at the time of the attack, which happened at about 7.50am.

Wearing a gray prison shirt, the girl sat stone-faced during the hearing and left quickly when it was over, as her mother sat at the same table, but without looking at her, the Chicago Tribune reported

The girl, dressed in a gray jail shirt, sat stone-faced during much of the hearing and jumped up quickly and walked out when it was over.

Just after the stabbing, the 14-year-old had called her mother and claimed that she had been woken by her sister's screams, and walked in to see a man stabbing her, assistant state attorney Claudia Kasten said.

When police told the teenager they had recovered a strand of hair, believed to belong to the killer, she changed her story, Ms Kasten said.

'There was evidence of trauma, and while multiple stab wounds were evident, I will defer to the coroner's office. As to motive, I don't want to comment at this point,' Mundelein police chief Eric Guenther told NBC Chicago.


Unexpected: Neighbors were shocked to hear of the attack that happened just before 8am on Tuesday

He added that officers had been called to the home before, 'but nothing pertains to an incident like this.'

The family were members of the St John Lutheran Church and the victim attended the St John Lutheran school in Libertyville, where grief counselors were on hand Wednesday to help her friends.

Neighbors of the family said there were shocked to learn of the stabbing, and had not heard any commotion on Tuesday morning.

'I didn't even know something was going on. If [detectives] hadn't knocked on the door, I wouldn't have come outside until the mail came,' Verona DaCosta told the Chicago Tribune.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2544263/Girl-14-stabbed-little-sister-39-times-didnt-appreciate-her.html

Sad.  Kids killing kids.  This is what you get with multiple parents, no supervision, no love, no teaching of value of life.  The parents should be charged.  William

'Demonic' girl, 14, 'killed her 11-year-old  half-sister by stabbing her 40 times because she didn't appreciate everything she had done for her'
Teen told police she stabbed Dora Betancourt, 11, to death for being ungrateful and mean to her
The older sister waited for her to fall asleep before killing her, cops said

She shouted specific reasons for each stab wound while carrying out the frenzied attack, investigators said authorities are mulling whether to charge her as an adult

By Daily Mail Reporter and Ryan Gorman
PUBLISHED: 19:08 EST, 22 January 2014  | UPDATED: 13:28 EST, 23 January 2014

Authorities say a suburban Chicago teen confessed to stabbing her 11-year-old sister to death Tuesday morning because she is 'not thankful.'

Dora Betancourt had as many as 40 stab wounds across her neck, chest and arms, as well as slashes to her face. Her 14-year-old sister reportedly shouted a separate reason at her for each stab wound.

The teenage suspect initially claimed a Hispanic male had broken into their Mundelein, Illinois, home, but she allegedly confessed after police revealed they had found a strand of the killer's hair in the victim's hand.


Brutally murdered: Authorities say Dora Betancourt's older sister confessed to her savage murder

Authorities told local media the older sister waited while young Dora slept before taking a kitchen knife and committing the grisly murder.

The unidentified older sister stabbed and slashed the young girl in a frenzied attack, shouting a reason at her sister each time she plunged the knife into her body, police said.

Stab wounds were found in the girl's neck, arms and torso, some of them defensive wounds. The Lake County Medical Examiner's Office told CBS Chicago 'the young girl's body had so many wounds they couldn't count them all... [and] were so deep they punctured her lung.'

'A struggle ensued,' Assistant State's Attorney Claudia Kasten told the courtroom, according to CBS Chicago. 'She kept stabbing.'

The teen kept stabbing and slashing until Dora's body fell lifelessly off the bed and then called her mother claiming she had been woken by her sister's screams, authorities said.


Horrifying end: Miss Betancourt (pictured with her father) was berated for being ungrateful by her older sister as she stabbed her to death in her own bed with a kitchen knife, police said

A 911 call had her claiming a Hispanic male killed the young girl. The 14-year-old tried washing Dora's blood off in the bathroom but still had some on her when police arrived, they said.

Cops said they discovered the girl's lifeless body in her room with the knife used in the attack still on the bed.

The teenager continued to claim an intruder committed the crime until investigators told her they had recovered a strand of her hair on the victim's body, she then confessed to the crime, according to police.

'What could be so bad that she did something like that?' Neighbor Verona DeCosta told NBC Chicago. 'A 14-year-old doing that... that sounds demonic to me.'

The girls' mother wept during a Wednesday court hearing where prosecutors claimed that the older girl had set her alarm early and made her attack while her little sister was still in bed.

'With each stab wound, she said she was not thankful for what she had done,' Ms Kasten said, according to NBC Chicago.


A family devastated: Ms Betancourt, pictured with an unidentified relative) is dead at only 11-years-old, and her older sister is behind bars


Shattered: The girls' devastated mother makes her way into court Wednesday for her teen daughter's murder trial hearing

The older girl told investigators she made dinner six times that week and that her sister made her mad after hitting her the night before, the Chicago Sun Times reported.

Their mother was not home at the time of the attack, which happened just before 8:30 a.m.

The girl wore gray prison scrubs, sat stone-faced during the hearing and left quickly when it was over, as her mother sat at the same table, but without looking at her, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The sisters shared the same mother but have a different father.

Neither the mother nor the daughter took their eyes off the judge for the duration of the hearing.

'There was evidence of trauma, and while multiple stab wounds were evident, I will defer to the coroner's office,' Mundelein police chief Eric Guenther told NBC Chicago.

He added that officers had been called to the home before, 'but nothing pertains to an incident like this.'

Authorities are currently mulling whether to charge the teen as an adult, reports said.


House of horrors: An 11-year-old girl was found stabbed to death in her bedroom in this Mundelein home, police say her older sister confessed to the murder


Unexpected: Neighbors were shocked to hear of the attack, one called the accused murderer 'demonic'
Locals were shocked by the horrifying crime.

'They would always be together,' Mary Anne Gryder told WLS. 'The older one would be taking care of the younger one, and vice versa.'

One neighbor told the Tribune he often saw the accused killer helping her younger sister do cartwheels.

'It's a little disheartening, you wonder why it happened,' another told CBS Chicago.

The family were members of the St John Lutheran Church and the victim attended the St John Lutheran school in Libertyville, where grief counselors were on hand Wednesday to help her friends.

The accused killer's next court hearing is scheduled for January 31.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2544263/Girl-14-stabbed-little-sister-39-times-didnt-appreciate-her.html

She was a gorgeous little girl.  The parents sure did not teach the older sister to value life.  William

Girl, 14, allegedly stabs sister to death in Mundelein, Illinois

Date: January 24, 2014

A 14-year-old girl from the small town of Mundelein, Illinois, has been charged with murdering her little sister by stabbing her to death.

Dressed in gray detention centre scrubs, her brown hair pulled into a ponytail, the girl remained passive in the juvenile court hearing room until Lake County Assistant State's Attorney Claudia Kasten recounted how the teen allegedly fetched a kitchen knife, the weapon used to stab her 11-year-old sister to death.

The teen's face flushed and her eyes brimmed. The woman sitting beside her, mother to victim and accused, blinked slowly and began to cry. But never did mother and daughter break their gaze from the judge sitting across the table. Never did they share so much as a glance.

The bleak scene came as prosecutors tried to explain how a sibling argument exploded into lethal violence on Tuesday morning, when the 14-year-old allegedly stabbed her sister dozens of times in a fury over the child's supposed ingratitude.

Multiple sources and public records, including her parents' divorce file, identify the victim as Dora Betancourt.

"This is quite a tragedy ... There's a lot of grief going on right now," Mundelein Mayor Steve Lentz said at a news conference. "Please pray for us."

Authorities did not offer much information on the sisters' relationship, but the Facebook page belonging to the 14-year-old — who has not been named because she has been charged as a juvenile — shows the two smiling together in several photographs.

"They would play in the front yard often," said neighbor Matthew McCoy, who lives a few doors down on Woodhaven Court. "The oldest girl would help the young girl do cartwheels."

Dora attended St. John Lutheran School in Libertyville. Her family has been a member of St. John Lutheran Church for years, said Steven Fuoco, a lawyer for the school and church.

Liam Welch, 14, went to elementary school with the 14-year-old girl and got back in touch in recent months. He said the alleged attack was utterly out of character for his friend, whom he described as funny and caring.

"If somebody at our school was having a really hard time, she was always there for them to make them feel better," he said.

While many questions remain about the alleged attack, Lake County prosecutors offered an unsettling account of its origin and aftermath.

During police questioning, the 14-year-old allegedly said that Dora had been hitting her and was not appreciative of her efforts to keep the household running. The girl said she had cooked dinner at least six times the previous week along with other chores, the prosecutor said during the court hearing.

Officials said the girls' mother was the only adult living in the home. She was at work on Tuesday morning, they said, when her daughters' quarrel took a horrifying turn.

Kasten said the 14-year-old, still angry over the previous night's argument, allegedly got a knife from the kitchen and went to Dora's bedroom. She began to stab her sister, saying with each wound inflicted that the younger girl was not thankful for what she had done, Kasten said.

"A struggle ensued," Kasten said. "She kept stabbing."

When the attack was over, Kasten said, the 14-year-old attempted to wash the blood off herself and phoned her mother with a lie: She claimed she had awoken to screams and found an intruder in the house stabbing her sister.

Her mother told her to call police and she did, meeting officers in tears when they arrived minutes later. The teen's hair was wet and she had some blood on her arms, Kasten said.

Dora sustained about 40 knife wounds, mostly around her neck, chest and arms, authorities said. A knife and a green shirt lay on the bed.

The officers did not find an intruder. They took the 14-year-old to the Mundelein Police Station, where she repeated her account, but when investigators told her they had found strands of hair in Dora's hand, she changed her story, Kasten said.

The 14-year-old faces juvenile charges of first-degree murder. Lake County State's Attorney Mike Nerheim said he will consider in the weeks ahead whether to prosecute her as an adult.

Mundelein Police Chief Eric Guenther said officers had been called to the family's house before "but nothing that pertains to an incident like this."

Mundelein, a village of about 31,000 people northwest of Chicago, is a relatively wealthy community. It boasts a median family income of more than $US80,000, and the average home price exceeds $US400,000. About 90 per cent of Mundelein High grads pursue further education. It is a place not accustomed to horrendous crimes.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services had not had prior contact with the family, but spokeswoman Karen Hawkins said the agency was now investigating the girls' mother for allegations of neglect.

The alleged attack was as unusual as it was shocking. FBI data indicate that among adolescents who kill, boys outnumber girls roughly 10 to 1. In 2012, only 55 girls nationwide committed the crime.

But researchers say that when girls do kill, they are more likely than boys to murder younger victims, frequently family members. They're also more likely to use a knife and to act in the grip of ungovernable anger.

"Multiple stab wounds can indicate rage as well as dissociation," said Kathleen Heide, a criminology professor at the University of South Florida who has researched girls who kill. "That's why a (risk evaluation) is critical. Is this person aware of what she's doing?"

Michael Conway, the lawyer appointed to represent the girl at Wednesday's hearing, told Judge Valerie Boettle Ceckowski he had 29 pages of discovery he hadn't had time to review with his client.

At the end of the hearing, Ceckowski said she decided to keep the girl in custody "based on probable cause and what I've heard."

The girl, impassive again, stood as reporters were ushered from the room. She is due back in juvenile court January 31.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/girl-14-allegedly-stabs-sister-to-death-in-mundelein-illinois-20140124-hv9nx.html#ixzz2rMmfsR5h

I think maybe the 14 yo sister had a lot of anger and resentment towards her mother; maybe more than against Dora.

That's exactly what I'm thinking.  It looks like the mother turned her duties over to the older sister and she broke under the pressure. 

I sure wish she had talked to a counselor at school who might have been able to get her out of this situation.  A tragedy.

The mother probably still won't accept responsibility.