Family prepares vigil for 4-year-old girl stabbed to death

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- While family and friends gather to hold a vigil for little Fredricka Allen tonight, her mother won't be there.

Instead she will be locked away after being charged in her daughter's murder.

Laquita Lewis allegedly sent a text message to her daughter's father and family saying she was so sorry, that she did "something bad" and that her little girl was going to heaven.

RELATED: Harris Co. mother charged with killing 4-year-old daughter

A mother is charged with killing her 4-year-old daughter. Family says she made previous threats.

Fredericka was just four years old, and her family said they had no idea Lewis was in a bad place.

"Why would you take the life of a child?" Fredricka's great aunt Paulette Lockridge said. "Your own child? But any child? How could you go and take a child's life like that? I don't understand it, honestly, I don't understand it."

Court records show back in November, Lewis had threatened to kill her 16-year-old son.

The 34-year-old mother has three other children, besides Fredricka.

Child protective services tells ABC13 they have investigated her in the past, though they wouldn't get into details.

Family said she does not have custody of her other kids.

The vigil is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the apartments at 5635 Timber Creek Place, where Fredricka died on Sunday.

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