A mother suffocated her infant to death using a black bin liner before traveling to Africa in pursuit of marrying a wealthy man.
Angela Whitworth, a 44-year-old mother of one, tragically murdered her 20-month-old daughter, Sarah Dahane, amidst a bitter custody battle with her ex-husband. The harrowing incident occurred at their family home in Bicester, Oxford, just a day before Whitworth was scheduled to hand over custody of Sarah to her former spouse for the weekend.
Twice-divorced Whitworth harbored an overwhelming desire to relocate with her daughter to Kenya, where the rest of her family resided. This aspiration was thwarted by the ongoing legal dispute over Sarah’s custody.
In a distressing turn of events on May 15, 2013, Whitworth took the life of her innocent child. Using a pair of tights, she strangled Sarah before suffocating her with a black bin liner. Following this heinous act, Whitworth fled to Nairobi, Kenya, where she embarked on a quest to find a wealthy suitor to marry.
Months later, in March, authorities apprehended Whitworth in Kenya and extradited her back to Britain to face justice. At the trial, she pleaded guilty to the charge of murder.
THE DISTURBING NATURE
The disturbing nature of Sarah’s death was uncovered when police officers forcibly entered the family home in Bicester on May 16, 2013. Inside, they found the house in disarray, with curtains drawn shut. In the front bedroom lay Sarah’s lifeless body, dressed only in a nappy and exhibiting signs of rigor mortis. A pair of tights with a knot tied in them and a scrunched-up bin liner were discovered nearby, serving as grim evidence of the tragic events that unfolded.
Although a post-mortem examination initially failed to conclusively determine the cause of Sarah’s death, further analysis pointed towards suffocation. It was inferred that she had been gagged with the tights and then smothered to death inside the bin liner.
Whitworth’s actions were compounded by the backdrop of a custody battle, revealing the devastating consequences of a bitter legal dispute between parents. Despite her privileged background and familial connections in Kenya, Whitworth’s descent into violence shattered lives and led to an unimaginable loss of innocence.
