Mother suspected in daughter's drowning

Anul Ram

SACRAMENTO — Police made a chilling discovery early Sunday morning when a father’s worst fears were confirmed: His 3-year-old daughter had drowned, allegedly at the hands of the girl’s mother.

A 7-year-old boy, the estranged couple’s son, was found unharmed at the Greenhaven Drive apartment of 31-year-old Anul Ram and her two children, now the crime scene in a devastating tragedy.

The tragic death was uncovered after Sacramento police received two phone calls from the father, one requesting a welfare check on his two young children and the second expressing fears that his daughter was already dead. The father made his first call to police at 1:19 a.m., shortly after Ram picked up their two children from his residence. The father made his second call 31 minutes later, offering additional information that a department release said led him to believe Ram had killed their daughter.

Police officers and then emergency medical personnel conducted CPR on the unresponsive girl, transporting her to UC Davis Medical Center where she was ultimately pronounced dead.

Sgt. Konrad von Schoech, public information officer with the Sacramento Police Department, said officers were dispatched at 1:51 a.m., one minute after the second call, and arrived at the suspect’s apartment within seven minutes.

Homicide detectives’ preliminary investigation led them to believe Ram was responsible for the girl’s drowning. She was booked into county jail on suspicion of murder.

The investigation remains ongoing, however, and a possible motive hasn’t been revealed. The Sacramento Bee reported that Ram, a nurse for Maxim Healthcare, filed for bankruptcy last year and alleged in court papers that she had been a victim of domestic violence.

While he couldn’t get into the specifics of the father’s first call to police, von Schoech explained the department’s policy for responding to welfare check requests.

“Absent any urgency or any belief that someone’s in immediate danger, that call’s given a priority — in this case, a priority 4,” he said. Officers respond to priority 4 calls after handling higher priority requests for service. Later on, when the father called again with information that his daughter may be dead, “that’s when the priority was elevated,” von Schoech said.

The Sacramento Police Department urges anyone with information pertaining to this crime to contact Crime Alert at (916) 443-HELP or text in a tip to 274637 (CRIMES). Enter SACTIP followed by the tip information. Callers can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.