Delaware father charged with murder after 10-year-old daughter’s beating death

Fatima Kone was found dead in her bedroom on Oakwynn Circle in Smyrna after what Delaware State Police say began as a claimed act of discipline and ended as a homicide case. Her father, Badara Kone, 49, was first charged in connection with child abuse, then later faced a second-degree murder charge after investigators and forensic examiners said the 10-year-old died from multiple blunt-force injuries.

Police said the beating happened on May 27, when Kone struck Fatima several times with a leather belt inside the family home. Investigators said the girl fell to the ground and is believed to have hit her head on furniture. Her 15-year-old brother and 11-year-old brother then helped her to her bedroom, where she remained for an extended period before 9-1-1 was called. Troopers were sent to the house at about 2 a.m. on May 28 and found Fatima dead in her room.

The case widened quickly once detectives began looking at the siblings. The boys were taken to an area hospital for precautionary wellness evaluations, and investigators said evidence gathered there pointed to a pattern of continuous physical abuse affecting all three children. Kone was charged on May 28 with continuous child abuse and child abuse offenses involving the boys, and he was initially held on a $17,000 cash bond. After the murder charge was authorized on June 1 by the Delaware Department of Justice, Kone was arraigned in Justice of the Peace Court 2 and held on a $180,000 cash bond through the Delaware Department of Correction.

The autopsy gave prosecutors the medical footing for the upgraded charge. Delaware State Police said the Delaware Division of Forensic Science classified Fatima’s death as a homicide caused by multiple blunt-force injuries, a finding that placed the case squarely in murder by abuse or neglect territory. The Delaware State Police Homicide Unit has kept the investigation active, while police have urged anyone with information to contact investigators or Delaware Crime Stoppers.

The death of a 10-year-old in her own bedroom has also put Delaware’s child-protection system under a hard light. State law requires immediate reporting of suspected child abuse or neglect to the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families, and the state’s child-abuse line operates 24 hours a day. For now, the central question remains the same one investigators faced when they entered that Smyrna home: what happened inside the house before Fatima was left in her bedroom and found dead the next morning?