A judge had ordered three Colorado children to spend Christmas with their father before his ex-wife allegedly violated the custody decree and killed two of the kids, court records show.
Kimberlee Singler, a 35-year-old Colorado Springs woman, was taken into custody over the weekend in the United Kingdom and held in connection with the killings of her younger daughter, 9, and son, 7, officials said.
On Dec. 19, police responded to an early morning 911 call about a burglary at Singler’s condo where they found the two dead children and took their mother and 11-year-old sister to the hospital. Police eventually said that there had been no burglary and issued an arrest warrant for Singler, who had fled the jurisdiction.
Singler and her ex-husband, 38-year-old Kevin John Wentz, had been locked in a yearslong court battle over custodial issues.
Singler had recently accused Wentz of pulling a knife on her and the allegations briefly cost him time with their children. The court eventually ruled that Wentz didn’t represent a threat to his children before lifting the restrictions against him spending time with them.
The court ordered “makeup parenting time,” with the children set to be turned over to Wentz at the Stetson Hills Division station of the Colorado Springs Police Department at 9 a.m. Dec. 16 before going back to Singler at noon Dec. 31 at the Greeley Police Department, court records showed.
It appears Singler did not show up with the children, because Wentz went to court Dec. 17 asking for emergency action and a “law enforcement assist to enforce parenting time,” Larimer County court records showed. A hearing was then set for Dec. 20, which turned out to be a day after the slayings.
That Dec. 20 hearing was called off with the court expressing “condolences about the recent occurrences for the parties and their families,” according to the records.
Colorado Springs police spokesman Ira Cronin declined to say anything further on the matter.
“I’m sorry but right now…
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