Death of battered Kent woman identified as murder

Three months after her death, the King County coroner’s office has ruled the death of a 28-year-old Kent woman – ​​who was allegedly abused daily by her mother – a homicide.

Esther Arunong, 28, died April 29 at Valley Medical Center in Renton, a day after her sister called 911 to request an ambulance for her, reporting that the sisters’ mother had recently beaten her.

The previous day, on April 28, Kent Police Department patrol officers and firefighters arrived at the family’s shared home in the 1600 block of W. Smith Street and found Arunong lying on the living room floor, her body covered in bruises and cuts.

“To be honest, I beat her up last week,” Arunong’s mother, Sepe Harrison George, told Kent officials.

Kent Police arrested George the same day for assault.

King County prosecutors charged George with two counts of second-degree domestic violence on May 1. At the time of the charges, the cause of Arunong’s death had not been determined.

On June 17, the King County Coroner’s Office released its findings on Arunong’s death, determining that Arunong’s death was a homicide resulting from multiple organ failure and blunt force trauma to the head, torso and extremities.

According to an arrest affidavit, Kent Police interviewed George after her arrest on April 28. In her interview, George admitted to hitting Arunong “almost daily.” She hit her with household items, including metal tongs, which caused a laceration on her forehead, and a frying pan. George told Kent Police that on one of the weekdays before her arrest, she hit Arunong on the side of the head with the frying pan, hard enough to bend the pan handle.

George said that after being hit with the pan, Arunong behaved differently, refusing to eat, stopping speaking and having difficulty walking.

Valley Medical Center staff told investigators that Arunong was suffering from kidney failure and her lungs were not getting enough oxygen. She also had a broken shoulder blade and two cuts to the bone – one on Arunong’s forehead and one on her hand.

Staff pronounced Arunong dead at 9:38 a.m. on April 29.

As of July 1, the King County District Attorney’s Office had not confirmed whether charges in the case would be changed to reflect the findings of the King County Coroner’s Office.