An Arizona mother who admitted to smothering her three children to death in 2020 will spend the rest of her life behind bars.
On Feb. 4, Rachel Henry was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children, according to a press release from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
Phoenix police previously said Henry, then 22, confessed to suffocating her son, Zane Henry, 3, and daughters Miraya Henry, almost 2, and Catalaya Rios, 7 months, in January 2020.
According to prosecutors, Henry said she killed her oldest daughter first and that her son began hitting and yelling at her when he saw what had happened. She then tried to grab the boy, but was stopped when the children’s father and great aunt arrived.
After some time, Henry said she was putting her son down for a nap and singing him a lullaby when she smothered him, the release states. Catalaya was the last to be killed.
Henry admitted that after killing each child, she staged their bodies on the couch so they would look like they were asleep, prosecutors said. The children’s great aunt called 911 on Jan. 20, 2020, and reported the killings to police.
In a video previously obtained by 12 News, Henry talks about the day of the killings, telling her aunt Pearla Rebolledo, “I felt like I was losing my mind.”
“I didn’t know what was going on,” she told her aunt. “I told you I felt like I was losing my mind, because I didn’t understand why you guys, why everyone was acting the way they were. I didn’t, I was on drugs. I was freaking out and I didn’t know what to do. I know I was scared.”
Later, Henry told her aunt, “I don’t remember doing it,” adding that she really wasn’t herself the day of the slayings, per the outlet.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell condemned Henry, saying that “it’s hard to comprehend how any parent could take the life of their own,” per the release.