Mom Wrote 'Divine Mercy' in Girl's Blood

Prosecutors have accused a woman of slitting her own 4-year-old daughter’s throat, and scrawling the words “divine mercy” on the bathroom walls in blood. The woman, 43-year-old Marci Webber, told police that she “wanted to keep her daughter from being an Internet sex slave,” the assistant state attorney said today in a bond hearing. Webber also slashed her own wrist, but survived the wound, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Webber has three daughters, aged 18, 10, and 4, each with a different father. The eldest was the first to stumble on the grisly scene Wednesday, when she stopped by her grandmother’s townhouse to check on her mother, who was visiting from New York. Webber was taken to the hospital, and eventually arrested yesterday. She was charged with first degree murder today, with bail set at $5 million. (More Marci Webber stories.)