Tri-Cities woman accused of severely beating girl for failing to do her chores
A Tri-Cities woman is in jail accused of beating a child bloody with a metal serving bowl and kitchen utensils.
Investigators say the abuse was captured on video by cameras Sarah Marie Totten, 37, had installed to monitor the girl, according to court documents.
Totten was booked into the Benton County jail on Friday on suspicion of first-degree injury to a child. She is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail due to the severity of the girls injuries.
The grade-school girl is currently living with relatives out of state.
Security camera video
Richland police began investigating the alleged abuse on Jan. 23 after being contacted by out of state investigators who were contacted by relatives.
Investigators were looking into a report that Totten had hit the child in the head with some kind of pot causing bleeding.
Video from inside the home allegedly showed Totten verbally abusing the child over chores and then attacking her in May 2024. The child was in the fetal position near the kitchen sink crying while Totten struck her repeatedly, according to court documents.
Totten also placed a metal serving bowl on the child’s head and began repeatedly shoving and pushing the metal bowl down. When the bowl fell off, she allegedly struck the child in the head with the bowl.
“Was it worth it? It will happen to the other side if you don’t get up and do your chores now,” Totten yelled at the child, according to court documents.
She then allegedly made the girl strip off the bloody clothes, clean up the blood and finish doing the chores naked.
A child forensic interviewer also discovered that Totten had struck the child in the face with a metal spatula, cutting her lip in half, according to court documents.
Totten had allegedly been waking the child up at 5:30 a.m. to do all of the household chores. The child was punished or kept home from school if the chores were not completed, according to court documents.
Investigators say all of the claims were corroborated through both a child forensic interview and video from the home. A neighbor also approached officers when Totten was being arrested to report seeing the child’s lip badly cut.
Totten allegedly placed the cameras around the home to ensure the child was only exiting their room, using the bathroom and eating when allowed, as well as to actively monitor the chores.
Investigators still have more than 68 gigabytes of video recordings to review, according to court documents.
