• U.S.
  • Crime

‘I Told My Husband to Take Care of It.’ Mother Admits Killing 5-Year-Old Daughter on Video

2 minute read

A newly released video shows an Ohio mother calmly confessing to beating her 5-year-old daughter to death after the girl’s body was found hidden in the family’s restaurant.

“I just killed her and then she died,” Ming Ming Chen, 30, said in the police video, which was obtained by Fox 8 Cleveland. “I told my husband to take care of it.”

Chen was sentenced to 22 years in prison last week after she pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges in her daughter Ashley Zhao’s death last year, according to the Associated Press.

 

Ashley ZhaoJackson Township Police Department

Chen, who ran Ang’s Asian Cuisine in North Canton with her husband, said she was overwhelmed with work and was frustrated with how disobedient her daughter had become after living with her grandparents, according to Fox 8.

“I need to take care of everything from the restaurant. I only have two hands,” Chen told investigators. “I don’t want to do that to Ashley, but you can’t control yourself sometimes.”

Ming Ming Chen (left) and Liang ZhaoStark County Sheriff

Chen and her husband, Liang Zhao, were charged in connection to their daughter’s death last January. The parents had first reported Ashley Zhao missing, but police said they later found the girl’s body “concealed” inside the family’s restaurant.

Chen, who is in the U.S. illegally, will be deported to her homeland of China after prison, the AP reports. Zhao pleaded guilty to charges including obstructing justice and corpse abuse.

More Must-Reads From TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com