38-year-old Veronica Youngblood, who lives in the US state of Virginia, was arrested on first-degree murder charges for shooting and killing her 15-year-old and 5-year-old daughters. After a 5-year trial, the mother was sentenced to 78 years in prison.

In August 2018, a mother named Veronica Youngblood shot her daughters, 15-year-old Sharon Castro and 5-year-old Brooklynn Youngblood, after drugging them with sleeping pills in their beds in their McLean apartment. 5-year-old Brooklynn was shot in the head with a single bullet and died at the scene. Sharon, 15, was shot once in the back and once in the chest and later died in hospital. While Sharon was injured at the scene, she called the police and reported the situation.

Youngblood told detectives she planned to kill them and herself following a protracted custody dispute. Before ending her daughter’s life, the 38-year-old mother admitted that she bought the gun she used in the murder 9 days before the day of the incident.

Veronica Youngblood, 38, was sentenced to 78 years in prison after being convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated use of a firearm.