Tracy Do Westport CT mom drowns 7yr old daughter, Layla Malon, kills self during custody battle & eviction with child’s father, Eric John Malon.
A Westport, Connecticut woman is believed to have drowned her 7 year old daughter before killing herself in a suspected murder suicide according to authorities.
Tracy Do, 46, and Layla Malon were found dead at their $1.8 million Westport property on Thursday.
A medical examiner had determined that the seven year old girl’s mother allegedly drowning her daughter in the bathtub and then killing herself by stabbing herself in the chest and limbs with an unspecified sharp object the Hartford Courant reported.
Cited court records showed that Do had been in an ongoing court battle with her former partner, Eric John Malon, over the custody of their two children. Records showed Layla and another 13 year old daughter, Alexis Malon also living at the home. It is unclear where the teen daughter was at the time of the killings or who found the deceased woman and child.
Files show Do had sued Malon, the father of her children, in October to keep her and the kids in the house, according to Connecticut Superior Court documents.
7 yr old Westport CT girl killed in murder suicide caught up in mom & dad’s vicious lawsuits
Back and forth lawsuits
Malon in turn, responded with his own lawsuit against Do in April the nypost reports.
In his suit, Malon demanded that Do ‘vacate the premises’ of the spacious, two-story home he owns on Lyndale Park and Weston Road, claiming the chidlren’s mother failed to pay him $10,000 a month in rent.
In her separate lawsuit, Do sued Malon for allegedly reneging on a promise to buy her a house in the idyllic town and to ‘take care’ of her financially if their relationship ever ended.
‘Since the time the parties ended their romantic relationship, [he] has refused to fulfill the promises he made,’ her suit claimed.
Do also alleged in the complaint that she continued working for Malon’s construction company after they broke up in 2018 but that he failed to properly compensate her, according to the court papers.
Of note, the former couple had never been married despite having two children together.
Come Monday, June 22, the state’s chief medical examiner ruled Malon’s cause of death to be homicide by drowning at the family’s Lyndale Park home where her mother’s body was also found. The medical examiner said Do died by suicide from ‘sharp injuries of torso and extremities,’ CT reported.
Neighbors said the family always looked happy, putting up big Christmas decorations and light displays every year.
‘They had the most beautiful Christmas decorations, which leads you to believe they were a happy family. Their children sold lemonade,’ neighbor, Mark Kratter told NBCNY.
To date, authorities have not yet revealed any information about a possible motive.
Westport is one of the five richest towns in one of America’s five richest counties, according to the New York Times. The ‘tony’ town is about an hour and a half northeast of New York City.
