Nicole Lester is charged with murdering her four-year-old daughter. (Picture: Salt Lake County Jail/ KUTV)

A mother slashed her four-year-old daughter to death then walked to her neighbors’ house and said ‘I killed my child’, police say.

Nicole Lester, 29, was arrested and charged with the aggravated murder of her unnamed child on Tuesday in West Valley City, Utah.

Lester’s next-door neighbor called police shortly after 5am and said Lester ‘had come to their home this morning, knocked on their door and told them she had killed her 4-year-old child,’ according to West Valley City Police Department spokeswoman Roxanne Vainuku.

The neighbor then let Lester borrow her phone to call police to report that she had just killed her daughter, according to a probable cause statement.




When police arrived, Lester was sitting outside her home in bloody clothing. Officers took her into custody and searched her home, where they found the girl’s body in the basement and a six-year-old boy sleeping a main-floor bedroom.

According to court documents, officers reported seeing numerous ‘sharp edge type wounds’ on the girl’s body. It is still unclear if she was slashed or stabbed. Police have not yet given a motive for the alleged murder, although Lester appeared bleary-eyed and disheveled in her booking mugshot.

Lester reportedly has prior convictions for drug possession and possession of drug paraphernalia. (Picture: Salt Lake County Jail)

The boy was reportedly taken from the home and Lester’s mother, the homeowner, had been away during the alleged attack, according to Gephardt Daily.

Vainuku said authorities and now ‘trying to piece together how something like this could happen.’

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‘It’s hard to even comprehend something like this, for sure. … This is something that is extremely difficult.’

Neighbors, including the unnamed man who Lester allegedly confessed to, reacted with disbelief after the horrific incident.

‘They were typical kids, they had fun playing. I would have never thought this would have happened,’ the man, who asked to be unnamed, told ABC 4.

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Another neighbor said: ‘They were both young, but to have a life taken so soon is sad.’

One wrote online: ‘So sad. I seen her walking her son to school every day. RIP Sweet Girl.’

The six-year-old boy is reportedly under the care of his grandmother and Lester is being held without bond, according to jail records.