‘Those little blonde heads jumping up and down on that trampoline’: 6-year-old girl and 11-year-old sister slain by mother in wholly unexpected double murder-suicide

Two little girls were killed by their mother who then took her own life sometime late last month, according to state police in Maine.

On July 27, the bodies of Hope Marie West, 6, Harmony Mae West, 11, and Jennifer Barney, 37, were found in the family’s apartment on Highland Avenue in the tiny former mill town of Mechanic Falls.

The youngest girl would have turned 7 on the day of the sad discovery.

Law enforcement were initially called to the residence in response to a report about a stolen U-Haul truck that had not been returned, the Mechanic Falls Police Department said in a press release. The vehicle was recovered sometime after 3:30 p.m. that Saturday afternoon.

“The officer and a deputy with the Androscoggin Sheriff’s Office attempted to make contact with the resident at that address as she was the person who had rented the truck,” Mechanic Falls Police Chief Jeffrey Goss said in a statement. “It was discovered during their investigation that the resident, an adult female, was deceased inside her residence. Officers made entry into the home and discovered two children, who were also deceased, inside the residence.”

The case was then turned over to the Maine State Police, Goss said, under the terms of standard protocol for such cases.

An animal control officer was called in to take custody of the family’s pets, police added. Neighbors said the family had a small white dog and a Doberman pinscher, according to the Sun Journal.

Investigators, in a matter of days, determined the crime scene was the site of a double murder-suicide. A motive for the violence, however, has not been floated by either law enforcement or surviving family.

One of the girls was killed by multiple stab wounds, an autopsy determined. The other girl was killed by various, other unidentified injuries, the autopsy showed. Authorities have not specified how the killer herself died as the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said was more testing was needed to make such a determination.

“We’re all in shock. Distraught. Devastated,” grandmother Davina Wilcox told Portland, Maine-based CBS affiliate WGME. “Never expected in a million years I’d be burying my grandchildren.”

Wilcox previously buried her 31-year-old son – father to the two girls and the husband of their murderer – in December 2019.

“He enjoyed playing the guitar and time spent with his family and friends, but the company of his two young daughters, Hope and Harmony was his world,” James Lee West’s obituary reads.

The grieving woman described each slain child in turn.

“They were loved by everybody that knew them,” Wilcox told the TV station. “Harmony loved unicorns. Her favorite color was pink. She loved to wear makeup and dress up. Had lots of friends at school.”

“Hopey,” Wilcox went on, appearing to fight back tears. “She was just precious. She loved cats. Anything to do with kitties and cats. Her favorite color was purple. And she adored her sister.”

A GoFundMe, since disabled by the girls’ uncle who organized it, raised just over $10,000 for the family’s funeral expenses.

“Harmony and Hope were the best of friends, and we are grateful they had each other in the challenges they faced in their young lives,” the fundraiser reads. “Our hearts have been shattered by the tragedy of their passing.”

The two girls were born in nearby Lewiston. They both attended Elm Street School, a pre-K through sixth-grade public school.

Neighbors told WGME and the Sun Journal that Harmony and Hope had typically played on their trampoline every day.

“It was always so nice to see those little blonde heads jumping up and down on that trampoline, and I’ll definitely miss that,” a neighbor identified only as Devon told the TV station.

“Yeah, my really nice friend,” Devon’s daughter Zoe said. “We played games together. And we played on the playground together.”

In recent weeks, however, the girls reportedly stopped attending summer school classes and had not been seen playing outside at all.

While a motive for the massive loss remains elusive, the girls’ grandmother has some ideas about those final weeks and moments.

“Had she said anything, we would have helped,” Wilcox told WGME. “Everyone would have helped.”

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