Inset: Anjelicia Stewart (Harris County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The Cincinnati neighborhood where Anjelicia Stewart attempted to drown her three kids at home in a bathtub (WXIX/YouTube).
An Ohio mother has been accused of abusing, torturing and attempting to drown her three children — ages 14, 8 and 2 — in a bathtub, with prosecutors saying she “held them underwater” while screaming at the trio.
“I’m going to kill you!” Anjelicia Stewart, 37, allegedly yelled at her kids while trying to kill them at their home in Cincinnati’s Westwood neighborhood.
It’s unclear when the attempted murders took place, only that the kids were abused and tortured between 2021 and April 2025, according to local NBC affiliate WLWT.
Stewart was taken into custody and charged this week after a warrant for her arrest was issued earlier this month.
“She repeatedly filled a bathtub full of water, held them underwater, screaming she was going to kill them,” a Hamilton County prosecutor said during Stewart’s arraignment on Tuesday. “She beat them with poles, metal clasps, dog chains, beat and choked them with belts, strangled them with her hands,” the prosecutor alleged.
On one occasion, Stewart allegedly slammed one of the kids on the floor so hard that they stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated by another child who performed CPR. It’s unclear how police found out about the alleged bathtub incident and abuse.
“What a horrific situation for those children,” Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich told the station. “I hope that they’re in safekeeping right now.”
Officials have said that Stewart’s kids are currently staying with family and friends as her criminal case unfolds. “The children are terrified of her,” the prosecutor said at Tuesday’s arraignment. “The family as well. The danger not only to them, the rest of the family.”
Stewart is facing charges of attempted murder, felonious assault, endangering children and sexual imposition. She is being held on a $500,000 bond and has been ordered not to contact her kids. She has pleaded not guilty.
