A Kent woman has been charged with repeatedly assaulting her adult daughter, who later died, according to King County prosecutors.
Sepe Harrison George, 58, was charged Wednesday with two counts of domestic violence second-degree assault in connection with her daughter’s injuries. Her 28-year-old daughter, Ester Arunong, died Monday after she was repeatedly injured by her mother, according to prosecutors and police.
Arunong’s manner and cause of death has not yet been determined by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office. As of Friday evening, her mother had not been charged with homicide.
George allegedly injured her daughter several times between April 14 and April 28, the day before Arunong died. This was part of a cycle of abuse, prosecutors alleged in charging documents, and George repeatedly used household items to strike her adult daughters in addition to punching and slapping them.
On Sunday, Arunong’s sister called 911 asking for an ambulance and said Arunong was unable to walk or talk, according to the charging documents. Arunong could be heard groaning in pain, and her sister told 911 that Arunong had recently been hit by their mother, a Kent detective wrote.
Kent police who responded to the apartment observed bruises and cuts all over the woman’s body, including a deep laceration on her forehead that appeared to be in the early stages of healing, according to the court documents.
While being treated, Arunong’s pulse dropped and she was taken to Valley Medical Center. A detective wrote that a Kent officer contacted George, and when the officer asked what happened, she replied “to be honest I beat her up last week,” according to the court filings. She said the cut on her forehead was caused by hitting Arunong on the head with metal grilling tongs a week earlier, according to the detective.
Arunong’s sister told police this was routine in the home, according to the charges.
George was arrested and interviewed by Kent police. According to the court documents, police said George told them she hit Arunong on the side of her head with a frying pan three or four days before she died.
“Sepe said she struck Ester so hard that it bent the pan handle, so she threw it away,” a detective wrote.
After that, Arunong began acting differently, stopped eating, and was having a hard time walking, according to the charging documents. At the hospital, she went into kidney failure. Arunong had a fractured scapula, her lungs were not taking in sufficient oxygen, and the wound on her forehead went down to her skull, a detective wrote.
The detective wrote George “had difficulty explaining what caused her to beat” her daughter “because the beatings were so frequent.”
George was originally held on $2 million bail before the court reduced her bail to $250,000. She remained in the Maleng Regional Justice Center on Friday.