Tinley Park man ‘went out of control’ before beating 17-year-old daughter to death, court filing contends

A Tinley Park man feared his 17-year-old daughter was hiding secrets from him and no longer loved him before he “went out of control” and severely beat her, according to a court document outlining details in the death of the girl, Mia Maro.

Mohammed Almaru, 42, is charged with murder and remains hospitalized, and is alleged to have “killed his own daughter in an extremely violent manner” inside the Tinley Park home they shared, according to the document.

The Cook County state’s attorney’s office, in the document filed Wednesday in the case, states that a sister of Almaru found her niece, Maro, in the home Sunday afternoon covered in a blanket, with her father on the floor next to her with an arm draped over his daughter’s body.

The girl was “cold to the touch” when first responders arrived, summoned by another sister of Almaru, according to the document, which requests Almaru be held without bond once he is able to make an initial court appearance.

The court document notes the girl, a senior at Andrew High School, was “covered in numerous bruises” including injuries to her head, arms, legs and feet. Maro had suffered “extensive hemorrhaging and bleeding” of the brain, and evidence suggests her father used “multiple objects” to inflict the wounds, according to the document, intended to buttress the state’s argument that Almaru be held without bond.

A bent metal pole and a mallet, both covered in blood and hair, were found in the home, according to the document.

Several minutes before first responders came to the home, in the 7800 block of 167th Street, Almaru texted his son a photo showing him holding a letter in which he blamed his incapacitated wife for leading their daughter to believe her father no longer loved her, according to the court filing.

Almaru said he had searched his daughter’s phone and allegedly found information she had not been truthful about, and that “he had to beat the information out of her,” according to the document. It was not clear whether the wording was from the text or the letter Almaru was purportedly holding.

He told to his son that he had beaten Maro and “accidental hit her in the head and then I laid down with her was uncontious and woke up to her ‘cold body,’” according to the document.

Almaru provided his son with a code to his safe and his banking information, and told him to withdraw money.

“I (fouled) up big time I’m sorry,” he told him, according to the filing.

When first responders arrived at the home, they found Almaru with superficial wounds to his wrists and neck and a box cutter was found nearby, according to the filing.

Police said that Almaru had also taken several narcotic pills and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he remains hospitalized.

In seeking that Almaru be held without bail, prosecutors note that he “poses a real and present threat to the community at large,” according to the document.

Short of incarceration in advance of a trial, “there are no conditions that can reasonably assure the safety of others.”

A judge’s order agreed with prosecutors and ordered that Almaru be held without bail.

Tinley Park police, in announcing the murder charge against Almaru, said they had no prior calls for incidents at the home apart from a medical call involving Maro’s mother.

Prosecutors, in the court filing, said that Almaru “was known to his family members to be abusive and controlling.”

Just days before her death, Maro had received permission from her father to attend Andrew’s senior prom on April 29, but he then rescinded his approval, according to the filing.

On April 26, while Maro was driving her father’s car, she accidentally rear-ended another vehicle and texted one of her aunts that she feared serious repercussions from her father.

According to the court filing, Almaru’s wife, who is also Maro’s biological mother, had suffered a medical emergency in the spring of 2019, leaving her mostly nonverbal and requiring round-the-clock care. Almaru’s two sisters were the woman’s primary caregivers, according to the document, and would often be at the Tinley Park home.

One of the sisters became concerned after her niece did not respond to texts she had sent Maro, and that she drove by the home April 30 and noticed the blinds in the home were closed, according to the filing. The woman thought it was odd because it was Maro’s habit, in the morning, to open the blinds in the home.

The sister drove by the home that evening and the blinds were still closed and Maro did not respond to another text message, according to the court filing.

One of Almaru’s sisters went to the home the following day, Sunday, and when her brother answered the door he “appeared to be disheveled” and asked his sister to sit with his wife so that he could complete some paperwork, according to the filing.

After a time, the woman went to the door of her brother’s bedroom and “began to hear gurgling” coming from inside, and when she opened the door found her brother and niece on the floor, according to the document.

A GoFundMe page established by one of Maro’s aunts said that the girl played “a primary part” in her mother’s care. The page had, as of late Thursday, raised more than $33,000 toward a goal of $20,000 to pay for Maro’s funeral and ongoing care for her mother and Maro’s two brothers.

“Mia was a beautiful soul and the light of our lives,” the aunt says at the page.

mnolan@tribpub.com