Background: News footage of the scene in December 2023 when two of Kimberlee Singler”s children were found dead (KKTV). Inset: Kimberlee Singler (Colorado Springs Police Department).
A Colorado woman who fled the country after allegedly murdering two of her children is back in the United States.
Kimberlee Singler, 37, is now in custody at the El Paso County Jail after nearly two years in a prison in the United Kingdom, where she allegedly fled after police said she shot her three children, two of them fatally, on Dec. 18, 2023. As Law&Crime previously reported, Singler reported a burglary at her home and claimed to police that she woke up after midnight on Dec. 19, 2023 to find her then-11-year-old daughter injured and her two younger children dead. Days later, Singler was nowhere to be found.
On Dec. 30, 2023, Singler was tracked down in the United Kingdom and taken into custody, where she remained for the next two years. She was extradited to Colorado’s El Paso County on Dec. 23 and booked into the El Paso County Jail, where she is being held without bond.
Local CBS affiliate KKTV obtained court documents related to Singler’s arrest that provided more details about what led police to believe that Singler murdered her own children during a custody dispute with her ex-husband.
According to the affidavit, Colorado Springs Police officers arrived at Singler’s apartment after midnight on Dec. 19, 2023 after she reported a burglary. Officers immediately noticed no signs of forced entry. Singler’s oldest daughter told police before she was taken to the hospital that a man came in the side door for what she claimed was a Christmas gift exchange.
Police said Singler blamed the attack on her ex-husband. When police contacted him to inform him of his children’s deaths, he said his ex-wife had been “acting weird,” and she “was trying to frame him” because she was not handling the custody agreement well. According to police, the ex-husband was working at the time of the attacks.
Aden Wentz, Kimberlee Singler, Ellie Wentz (pictures of children via GoFundMe; photo of suspect via Colorado Springs Police Department).
After Singler was treated at the hospital, police interviewed her and she claimed that she had a medical condition that caused her to feel faint and lose consciousness. She told police this was what happened to her when she and her children were attacked on Dec. 18, 2023. When it came to the suspect, she told police he was “[j]ust a man,” and no one she had ever seen before.
According to the affidavit, 9-year-old Elianna “Ellie” Wentz and 7-year-old Aden Wentz were both found deceased on a bed. Near the bed, police found a bloody firearm and ammunition with blood on it. A knife was also found in the living room, also with blood on it.
An autopsy determined that both children were shot in the head and had lacerations to their necks. police said the then-11-year-old was placed with a foster family after she was released from the hospital.
Days after Singler reported the attack on her family, investigators determined that the blood found on the knife and on the gun belonged to Singler. On Dec. 25, 2023, police spoke to the surviving child again, who told them that Singler told her to lie about what happened. The 11-year-old added that “she had been feeling awful about the lie.”
Singler was reported missing on Dec. 24, 2023, and found in the United Kingdom less than a week later.
Singler was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of child abuse, and one count of assault. She is being held at the El Paso County Jail without bond. Her next court date is scheduled for Jan. 7, 2026.
