COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — A southside Columbus mother has now been charged with murder after police say she killed her 3-year-old daughter New Year’s Eve. 41-year-old Sharon Sakoulos now awaits arraignment at a Franklin County jail.
We can watch the baby if mom’s going to jail. And they said ‘She’s going to the hospital. She’s gone.’
Police responded to a call at the family’s home at the 1400 block of Orson Drive shortly after 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, where they found the child unresponsive.
“Out of nowhere I just see 10 flashing lights, so I’m sitting in the car and I’m like, what’s going on?” Richard Gray, one of Sakoulos’ neighbors, said.
Cassidy was rushed to Nationwide Children’s Hospital but was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later.
“Yeah, we seen the cops pull up, and they beelined straight to the door, pretty much kicked the door in.” Tristan Price, a neighbor, said.
“[The cop] he’s like, ‘I don’t know if you guys pray, but definitely say some prayers today,'” Darian Price, another neighbor added.
ABC 6 obtained the court documents related to this case, which said the preliminary investigation determined the death to be a homicide motivated by domestic violence.
According to the preliminary report, Sakoulos killed her child by means of suffocation. Court documents reveal that Cassidy had visible bruises and that her mother admitted to suffocating her by placing a bag over her head.
These court documents also said it was Sakoulos intention to kill her daughter.
Neighbors expressed shock and disbelief at the tragic event.
“This is — it’s kind of traumatizing,” Tristan Price said.
“I feel like nobody deserves to die at that age, for sure,” Gray added.
Neighbors describe Cassidy as always running around the neighborhood with her mother.
“Yeah, happy go lucky for sure,” Gray said. “She says hello to me. She runs up to my door. Dang, that’s crazy. People are crazy.”
I always see her chill with the baby, walk the baby every day, like I’ll be seeing her trying to be a good parent.
The Prices told ABC 6 they occasionally would watch little Cassidy, and they said they could have never imagined seeing cop cars and flashing lights taking her away to Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
“She was a huge Scooby-Doo fan,” they said. “She’s got really pretty curly brown hair. And for Halloween, she was a unicorn princess. My little Scooby Doo buddy.. It was a gut punch.”
Meanwhile, the Prices also said the mother gave them a “weird energy,” describing interactions they had with her as “always overstaying her welcome and not paying attention to the baby.”
“She wanted us to watch the baby all the time,” they said. “The ambulance came, and she was standing there smoking a cigarette. And we were like, ‘That’s weird,’ especially since the way the mom was standing there, like, reactionless.”
“We could have probably been friends, but they were extremely off,” the pair added.
ABC 6 reached out to Franklin County Children’s Services. A representative from the agency told me they were not actively working with Cassidy’s family, and their last interactions were from more than a year and a half ago.
We have asked the agency for a copy of the family’s file. This is a developing story, and we will keep you up to date as we get more information.
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