Phoenix Mom Who Confessed To Killing 3 Kids Pleads ‘Not Guilty’

PHOENIX, AZ — Rachel Henry, 22, whom police said confessed to killing her three kids in January, entered a “not guilty” plea Tuesday at her arraignment for three charges of first-degree murder.

The case started when Phoenix police were called around 7:30 p.m. Jan. 20 to a residence near 25th Street and Vineyard Avenue — where Henry lived with her husband, three children and a female family member— on a report of “unknown trouble.”

Officers arrived at the residence and immediately found Henry’s three children unresponsive. Police began CPR on the kids — later identified by police as Zane Henry, 3; Miraya Henry, killed a week before her second birthday; and baby girl Catalaya Rios, 7 months. Next, Phoenix Fire arrived at the home and pronounced all three kids dead.

Initial reports from police indicated there were “no obvious signs of trauma to the children.”

After being interviewed by police the evening of Jan. 20, however, Henry confessed to killing her three children, then placing their bodies on the couch as if they were sleeping. She told police she had killed them by smothering them quietly, one by one, so her husband and the other relative in the home at the time of the deaths didn’t know.

Henry had recently relocated from Oklahoma to Arizona not long before the killings. It was reported in a previous court appearance that Henry’s children had been removed from her home before and that she had a history of methamphetamine addiction.

Her next court appearance will be March 24.