Kristi Anne Abrahams

Name: Kristi Anne Abrahams

Number of victims: 1

Date of murder: July 18, 2010

Date of arrest: April 22, 2011

Victim profile: Kiesha Weippeart, 6 (her daughter)

Method of murder: No cause of death was ever established

Location: Mount Druitt, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Status: Plead guilty and was sentenced to a 16-year non-parole period on July 18, 2013

Kristi Ann Abrahams was an Australian woman who was found guilty of the murder of her 6-year-old daughter in 2010. She was sentenced to 22 years and 6 months in prison and was ordered to serve at least 16 years before being eligible for parole; she will be eligible in 2027. Also convicted in the crime was Abrahams' partner, Robert Smith, who received a sentence of at least 12 years in prison and will be eligible for parole in 2023.

Biography

Little was publicly released about the early life of Kristi Anne Abrahams, but it is thought that the abuse she inflicted on her six-year-old daughter Kiesha may have stemmed back to her own difficulties as a child.

The court was told that Abrahams was the daughter of a violent and alcoholic man who spent a lot of time in police custody for various offenses. When Abrahams was 10 years old, she discovered her mother dead in their home; this event began a period of many years that Abrahams spent in and out of foster care.

On April 22, 2004, Abrahams gave birth to a little girl she named Kiesha. Kiesha's father was Christopher Weippeart, and the little girl was given his surname.

Abrahams had been reported to the Department Of Child Safety several times due to threats she had made to hurt Kiesha, due to her frustrations with Kiesha's toilet training and "playing up at school." In 2005, Kiesha was temporarily removed from her mother's custody after receiving hospital treatment for a bite wound. Abrahams pleaded guilty to the assault in court and was ordered to complete an anger management course before Kiesha was returned to her in December 2006.

Signs of abuse on Kiesha were seen by several people -- but their concerns were not enough to save her from her violent mother. The little girl had only attended kindergarten classes four times, and despite efforts by education workers to fix this, Abrahams continued slamming the door in their face or refused to answer the door altogether.

In 2007, a DOCS worker pointed out a burn on Kiesha's body while talking to the girl away from her mother. The then-three-year-old explained that "mum did that" and "mum hit there."

According to court documents, Abrahams was "annoyed" by Kiesha's resemblance to her biological father, Chris Weippeart, and that was what triggered the abuse on the girl.

Neighbors and friends reported that Kiesha would "flinch" if Abrahams just raised her hand to speak casually and that she appeared to be scared of her mother.

In August 2010, six-year-old Kiesha was reported missing by her mother, Kristi, and her step-father Robert Smith. Reporters were told by Abrahams that she had put Kiesha to bed around 9:30pm, but she was gone by the following morning. Early on, homicide detectives believed there was a more sinister and disturbing truth behind Kiesha's disappearance.

The couple was arrested in April 2011, as they were visiting the gravesite of little Kiesha in Shalvey bushland on what would have been the little girl's seventh birthday. A few days earlier, Abrahams told an undercover officer the true story behind Kiesha's final hours -- and the steps she and Smith took to conceal the crime.

She informed the officer that rather than putting Kiesha to bed, the little girl had instead been injured on her bedroom floor after she resisted putting on her pajamas. She insisted she had just "nudged" the little girl with her foot, causing her to fall and hit her head on the bed. Abrahams said her daughter felt "like jelly" and was unresponsive when placed in the shower. The next morning, she was dead.

Abrahams and Smith placed Kiesha's body into a suitcase and left it sitting in the house for several days, before deciding they needed to dispose of the remains. The couple called for a taxi one evening, traveled to Shalvey, walked into the bushland and discarded the remains. After digging a shallow grave, Smith set fire to Kiesha's body before burying her.

When the couple was arrested, the body was unearthed and taken for autopsy. The burning of the body meant that an exact cause of death was not able to be found. A dental expert told the court that Kiesha had damage "equivalent to a sporting injury," which contradicted Abrahams' report that she had just "nudged" her daughter with her foot. The autopsy also showed the girl had received as many as five blows to the jaw before her death.

Robert Smith pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to at least 12 years in prison. He will be eligible for parole in 2023. Abrahams put in a plea of guilty to manslaughter in May 2011, but the plea was rejected by prosecutors, forcing her to go to trial. The morning the trial was due to start (June 17), Abrahams pleaded guilty to murder; she was sentenced to 22-and-a-half years in prison and must serve 16 years before being eligible for parole. She will be eligible for parole in 2027.