MAPLEWOOD, Minnesota — A 17-year-old girl is facing a second-degree murder charge after police say she beat her mother to death with a hammer — then showed up to her day program the next morning acting like nothing happened.
The victim, 43-year-old Georgina Lee Monk, was found dead in her apartment on June 26 with multiple blunt-force injuries to her face and upper body. Monk was diabetic and had been using a wheelchair due to a foot infection.
A Heated Fight the Night Before
Neighbors and the apartment manager told police the mother and daughter had a long history of conflict. On the night of June 25, the manager heard an argument that was “more heated than usual.” A neighbor told police that Monk had recently taken her daughter’s phone away.
Surveillance footage showed the teen leaving the building at 3:23 a.m. with a large white garbage bag. Two hours later, she was seen on camera with a hammer — then spotted again empty-handed.
“Not Entirely Planned”
Staff at the teen’s day treatment program grew alarmed when she arrived that morning and said someone should check on her mother because she felt “regret.”
When officers arrived at the apartment, they found Monk dead in her bed. Bloodstains were found throughout the home. Bloody clothes were recovered from a hamper in the teen’s room.
During questioning, the teen admitted to hitting her mother twice in the head with the hammer. She told detectives a thought came to her to “get rid of anybody who hurt you in your life.”
She then asked investigators: “Am I a criminal because I only killed one person?”
From custody, she called her boyfriend and said: “It wasn’t just rage. I just couldn’t handle it no more.”
The teen is charged with second-degree murder and remains in custody. Because she is a juvenile, court records have not been made publicly available.
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