Police: Girl hugs, thanks officer 'for coming to save us' from cord-wielding mom

A St. Paul mother has been charged with whipping her children with an electrical cord, leaving wounds all over her 5-year-old twins and naked 7-year-old daughter, explaining that she was mad because they did a poor job cleaning their rooms.

The oldest of the three hugged an officer who arrived Tuesday night at the home in the 1100 block of Sherburne Avenue and said: "Thank you for coming to save us. … My mom told me she was going to cut my throat with a knife," read the criminal complaint filed Thursday in Ramsey County District Court against 31-year-old Khima N. McAdory.

McAdory was charged with second-degree assault, terroristic threats, and two counts of malicious punishment of a child. She remains jailed in lieu of $50,000 bail.

The children were taken to Midwest Children's Resource Center in St. Paul, a clinic that specializes in treating children subjected to physical and sexual abuse. Clinic staff documented the wounds, which they noted "were too numerous to count," the complaint read.

The oldest child "was particularly humiliated because she had to remove all of her clothing prior to her whipping," the clinic staff reported in the complaint.

According to the complaint:

Acting on an anonymous tip about trouble unfolding in the home near University Avenue and Lexington Parkway, police arrived and met McAdory. She immediately told officers: "I'm not going to lie to you; I did whoop my kids with a cord."

Officer Amber Larson photographed wounds on all three of McAdory's children. The 7-year-old had wounds behind her right ear, two long welt marks atop her head, another one across her right eyebrow and on her right side, and bruising on one leg and one arm.

One of the 5-year-old twins, a girl, had facial, arm and leg wounds. Her twin, a boy, had wounds all over his back and on his left side. The cord was recovered in the home.

"When Officer Larson arrived, [the 7-year-old] grabbed her around the waist and hugged her and said, 'Thanks for coming to save us. … My mom gave me a whooping," the complaint read.

"I got a whooping worse than my brother and sister. My mom told me she was going to cut my throat with a knife," the child continued, adding that her mother has also choked her.

The woman's roommate said she's been living at the home for about four months and had seen numerous incidents of child abuse. The roommate said McAdory would talk about her intentions to harm her children and herself.

McAdory admitted having her children strip before whipping them with the cord, the complaint read. She said she meant to hit them only on their buttocks, however the blows hit the children elsewhere because they were moving, the mother continued. She denied choking the 7-year-old or threatening to kill her.

"She stated that she did not have any excuses," the complaint read, "and she knows that she should not have done what she did."

McAdory has only a check forgery conviction on her record in Minnesota, according to court records.