DENVER (AP) — A Colorado woman suspected of killing her two young children two years ago during a custody dispute with her ex-husband has been extradited to the United States from the United Kingdom Facing death charges.
Kimberlee Singler was arrested in London in December 2023, just over a week after her 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son were found dead in their Colorado Springs home. Her 11-year-old daughter was injured but survived. The girl eventually told investigators that her mother said God told her to do it, British court documents show.
Singler, who suffered superficial stab wounds, told police a man who entered the apartment was responsible. She was initially considered a victim.
The surviving daughter initially supported Singler’s story, but police said the girl changed her story and attempted to arrest Singler on December 26, 2023. Singler was gone by then. She was found and arrested four days later in London’s upscale Chelsea neighborhood. It’s unclear why she was there.
Singler, 37, is fighting extradition and denies attacking her children. Her London defense lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, argued that Singler should not be extradited because she would have faced a mandatory life sentence without parole if convicted of first-degree murder in Colorado – a sentence that would violate European human rights law. Fitzgerald represents WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in his long-running fight against extradition to face espionage charges in the United States
Singler’s U.S. attorney is not yet listed in court documents as representing her, according to the court clerk’s office.
A judge dismissed Singler’s challenge in January 2025, and her appeal was denied in November.
Singler is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two children. British court documents show the family had been living with Singler’s mother during the custody battle, but she was away at the time
Singler also faces one count of attempted murder, three counts of child abuse and one count of assault.
According to British court documents, police discovered the children’s bodies shortly after midnight on December 19, 2023. Police said they found no footprints in the snow leading to the patio. Singler said an intruder entered through an unlocked door and attacked her, causing her to lose consciousness.
She told police that her ex-husband “had previously dreamed of killing his family and that the children’s father was always trying to ‘frame her’, ‘arrest her’ and take the children away from her,” Judge John Zani said in his January ruling against Singler at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
Police said GPS records showed her ex-husband was driving a truck about 80 miles (130 kilometers) away at the time of the incident.
The day before the children’s bodies were found, a Colorado judge ordered Singler to comply with a previous order allowing the father to have custody of them during the holidays, according to state court records. She was told to either give the children to her ex-husband herself or take them to a court hearing on December 20, 2023, where custody of the children would be exchanged.
On the day of the hearing, Singler asked the judge to delay the trial, writing in a motion that she and her children were attacked and two of the children were murdered. She asked for time to grieve the loss of her child and “come to terms with where I am now after this has happened.”
