PHOENIX — A woman charged with murder in the deaths of her three young kids in Phoenix was the subject of several home visits by police and child-welfare authorities when she previously lived in Oklahoma, according to police reports.
The reports released Friday by police in Prague, Okla., say a relative was given custody of Rachel Henry’s children for seven days in August 2018 while child-welfare authorities decided whether to take them away permanently or return them to their mother.
The children were temporarily taken away because Henry was caught at her apartment with her boyfriend, Pedro Genaro Rios, who had been accused earlier of threatening Henry and one of her children, according to the reports.
Child-welfare authorities, who were trying to get Henry into another home, had warned her that her children would be taken away if she returned to the apartment or was seen with Rios.
Henry, 22, is charged with first-degree murder in Monday’s killings of 3-year-old Zane Henry, 7-month-old Catalaya Rios and Miraya Henry, who would have turned 2 years old next week.
Prosecutors said Henry acknowledged having a history of methamphetamine addiction and that her children had previously been removed from their home by child-welfare authorities in Oklahoma due to issues related to her drug problem. Henry’s family moved to Phoenix in June.
The Arizona Department of Child Safety said it didn’t have any earlier contacts or abuse reports involving the family.
No motive for the killings has emerged. Authorities say Henry wasn’t under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the killings.
Attorney Alan Tavassoli, who represents Henry on the murder charges, didn’t return a call seeking comment on the criminal charges against his client and her earlier dealings with child-welfare authorities.
Efforts to get comment from Rios, who doesn’t have a listed phone number, were unsuccessful.
