A father was charged Friday with suffocating his 5-year-old daughter, apparently because he was upset that she had “messed up” her toys in their home near Des Plaines, authorities said.
Elmyr Lawson, 37, of the 9200 block of Potter Road in unincorporated Cook County was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, said Sheriff Tom Dart.
His daughter, Kae Cassandra Lawson, who authorities said celebrated her 5th birthday a month ago, was found about 10:15 p.m. Thursday by her mother on the living room floor of the family’s condominium.
The mother, who works as a nurse in a retirement facility, had returned after a 12-hour shift, Dart and neighbors said.
Kae’s father was supposed to have been baby-sitting but was not home when his wife found the body and ran down the hall of the condo building carrying her daughter.
The mother “was yelling, ‘Help me! Help me! She’s not breathing!” said Amada Gomez, a neighbor who stepped into the hall when she heard the screams.
Gomez said she tried to perform CPR, but she believed the girl already was dead.
Elmyr Lawson was arrested about midnight in his car in a parking lot at Biesterfield Road and Illinois Highway 53 in Elk Grove Village.
“He acknowledged that his daughter had messed up her toys, and as a result of that, he suffocated her with a towel,” Dart said.
Lawson is expected to appear Saturday for a hearing in the Skokie branch of Circuit Court.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is investigating, agency spokesman Kendall Marlowe said.
DCFS had no prior contact with the family and there were no other children living in the home, he said.
Dart said the mother had talked to her husband and daughter by phone about 7 p.m. Her husband was to pick her up at work about 8 p.m. but didn’t.
She eventually got a ride back to their condo, Dart said.
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