Murder of the Kumari-Baker sisters

Background

Davina Kumari-Baker, 16, and her younger sister Jasmine, 13, lived with their mother, Rekha Kumari-Baker, in Stretham, Cambridgeshire, England. On the day of the murders, 13 June 2007, Kumari-Baker took her daughters on a shopping trip to the Lakeside Centre near Thurrock, Essex, before returning home with them.

The killings

That night, while the girls slept at their home, Rekha Kumari-Baker stabbed both of her daughters to death. Davina was killed first and was stabbed 39 times. Jasmine was found dead in her bed, having been stabbed 29 times. Following the killings, Kumari-Baker telephoned a friend who worked as a special constable and admitted that she had murdered her children, telling the friend that she had "done something terrible."

Investigators established that Kumari-Baker had purchased the kitchen knives used as the murder weapons from an ASDA store on 11 June 2007, two days before the killings.

Prosecution and motive

At trial, the prosecutor stated that Rekha Kumari-Baker killed her daughters as an act of revenge against her ex-husband and the girls' father, David Baker. The presiding judge, Mr Justice Bean, said Kumari-Baker had wanted to "retaliate against David Baker and destroy the happiness in his life." However, the judge also stated that her full motive could not be conclusively determined by investigators, and he described her defense at trial as "flimsy and insubstantial."

Verdict and sentencing

The jury took 35 minutes to convict Rekha Kumari-Baker of the murders of her two daughters. She was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of 33 years before parole eligibility. The BBC reported in 2010 that this was "one of the longest jail terms given to a woman in the UK in modern times."

Council review

Cambridgeshire County Council conducted a review into the deaths of Davina and Jasmine Kumari-Baker. The review concluded that the murders could not have been prevented by local authorities and issued recommendations for social workers arising from the case.