Denver — A Colorado woman suspected of killing two of her young children during a custody dispute with her ex-husband two years ago has been returned from Britain to the United States. To face the chargesTuesday, authorities said.
Colorado Springs District Attorney Michael Allen announced the extradition of Kimberly Singler, 37, on charges including two counts of first-degree murder ahead of her first court appearance in the coming days.
Singler was arrested in December 2023 in London just over a week after her 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son were found dead in their Colorado Springs home. Her 11-year-old daughter was injured but survived. Eventually, the girl told an investigator that her mother said God made her do it, according to court documents in the United Kingdom.
Singler, who suffered superficial knife wounds, told police the man who entered the apartment was responsible. She was initially considered a victim.
The surviving daughter initially supported Singler’s claim, but police sought to arrest Singler on December 26, 2023, after they said the girl changed her story. By then Singler was gone. She was Found four days later In the upscale Chelsea neighborhood in London, he was arrested. It is not known why she ended up there.
“Today marks a significant milestone in this criminal investigation,” Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said at a news conference. “Singler is accused of committing an unthinkable act…I know these actions have deeply impacted this community, and our hearts remain with the victims.”
Singler will be held without bail at least until a preliminary hearing on whether there is enough evidence to move toward trial, Allen said. This hearing is usually scheduled within 30 days of the initial court appearance, with some exceptions, he said.
The surviving child, now 13, is expected to be a key witness in the trial, Allen said. He otherwise declined to discuss the details of the prosecution’s case beyond procedural steps.
The FBI and Colorado Springs police traveled to London to arrest Singler, who opposed extradition and denied attacking her children.
Her defense lawyer in London, Edward Fitzgerald, said she should not be extradited because if convicted of first-degree murder in Colorado, she would face a mandatory sentence of life without parole – a sentence that violates European human rights law.
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Singler does not yet have a U.S.-based attorney listed as her representative in court documents, according to the court clerk’s office.
A judge denied Singler’s appeal in January 2025, and her request to appeal was denied in November.
Singler also faces one count of attempted murder, three counts of child abuse and one count of assault.
According to British court documents, police found the children’s bodies shortly after midnight on December 19, 2023. Police said they found no footprints in the snow leading to the yard where Singler said an intruder entered through an open door and attacked her, causing her to lose consciousness.
She told police that her ex-husband “had previously dreamed of killing his family, and that the children’s father was always trying to ‘frame her’ and ‘arrest her’ and take the children from her,” Judge John Zanni said in a January ruling against Singler in Westminster District Court.
GPS records showed her ex-husband was driving a truck about 80 miles (130 kilometers) away at the time of the killing, police said.
The family was staying with Singler’s mother during the custody battle, but the mother was away at the time, according to court documents in the United Kingdom.
The day before the bodies were found, a Colorado judge ordered Singler to comply with a previous order allowing the father to take care of them during the holidays, according to state court records. She was asked to either hand over the children to her ex-husband on her own or bring them to a court hearing on December 20, 2023 to exchange custody there.
On the day of the hearing, Singler asked the judge to postpone it, saying that she and her children had been attacked and two of them had been killed. She asked for time to grieve and “gather myself together after this incident.”