Patricide charge: Asenka Miller Wilber, 50, has been charged with murder for allegedly beating her 75-year-old mother, Carole Hardin, to death during a fight
A Washington state woman has been charged with murder for allegedly killing her 75-year-old mother in the home they shared and then spending the day digging a grave for her in the backyard.
Asenka Miller Wilber, 50, was escorted into Clark County Superior Court in a wheelchair on Monday and asked a judge to have her executed.
‘I want the death penalty. Lethal injection, please,’ Wilber said. ‘The court does not want me alive, and neither do I.’
According to a probable-cause affidavit, Wilber reportedly told detectives her mother, Carole Hardin, physically abused her throughout her life.
Authorities said Wilber told them she and her mother fought last week in their Vancouver home and that she punched the elderly woman in the head until she stopped moving. She even checked the victim’s pulse to make sure she was dead.
Wilber spent the rest of the day digging a grave in her backyard. She only stopped when she became exhausted and went to a neighbor’s house on Thursday to report her mother death.
The neighbor called 911 to request a welfare check, and police who arrived on the scene in 14300 block of Northeast 80th Street found Hardin’s body in the bedroom. In the yard they discovered a hole in the ground measuring several feet deep.
After making sure Hardin had no pulse, Wilber reportedly began digging a grave in the backyard of their Vancouver, Washington, home (pictured)
When police reviewed the contents of Wilber’s phone, the came across photos taken after her mother’s killing, which depicted the interior of the house and injuries to Wilber’s hands and arms she had allegedly sustained during the fight.
During Monday’s hearing, the judge set Wilber’s bail at $500,000 after prosecutors cited public safety concerns.
Prosecutors said Hardin had obtained a restraining order against her daughter last year and filed to renew it, but the order was dropped when neither woman showed up for a court hearing.
Wilber’s attorney argued that Hardin may have been the aggressor in the altercation with her daughter and that the defendant was afraid of her.
Wilber was brought into Clark County Superior Court in a wheelchair on Monday and asked the judge to give her a lethal injection
In an interview with Fox 12, Hardin’s friend Martha Suggs questioned Wilber’s allegations of physical abuse, saying the 75-year-old woman was ‘very petite.’
She also said Hardin had talked to her about her daughter’s mental health problems in the past.
Wilber has been put on suicide watch in jail. Her next court appearance is scheduled for October 12.
KOIN reported that according to court records, Wilber was previously convicted of three counts of assault and felony harassment stemming from incidents dating back to 2013.