Tinley Park man found guilty of beating his daughter to death in May 2022

A Tinley Park man was convicted of first-degree murder on May 1, 2022, for beating his 17-year-old daughter, a 12th-grader at Andrew High School, to death in her home, the Cook County District Attorney's Office said.

Mohammed Almaru was found guilty in a jury trial at the Bridgeview Courthouse. Prosecutors said he feared his daughter would keep secrets and no longer love him before he “lost control” and brutally beat her.

Just days before her death, Mia Maro had received permission from her father to attend Andrew's prom on April 29, but then he withdrew his consent, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said one of Almaru's sisters found her niece Maro in the house in the 7800 block of 167th Street on the afternoon of May 1, covered with a blanket while her father lay on the floor next to her with one arm draped over his daughter's body.

A court document from the time Almaru was charged said the girl was covered in “numerous bruises,” including injuries to her head, arms, legs and feet. Maro suffered “severe bleeding and brain hemorrhages,” and evidence suggests her father used “multiple objects” to inflict the wounds, the document said.

According to the document, a bent metal rod and a hammer were found in the house, both covered in blood and hair.

Several minutes before emergency responders arrived at the house, Almaru texted his son a photo of himself holding a letter in which he accused his incapacitated wife of tricking her daughter into believing her father no longer loved her, court records show.

Almaru said he searched his daughter's phone and allegedly found information she had not been honest about and that he “had to beat the information out of her,” the document said. It was not clear if the wording came from the text or the letter Almaru allegedly held.

He told his son that he had hit Maro and “accidentally hit her on the head. Then I lay down next to her, she was unconscious and woke up in her 'cold body,'” the document says.

According to prosecutors, Almaru gave his son a code for his safe and his bank details and asked him to withdraw money.

“I totally messed up, I'm sorry,” he told him, according to the file.

When emergency responders arrived at the house, they found Almaru with superficial wounds on his wrists and neck. A box cutter was also found nearby, the file states.

Originally published: August 19, 2024 at 3:30 p.m.