Authorities: Kenyan woman, 2 daughters were beaten to death

MARIETTA, Georgia: Authorities said a Kenyan immigrant and her two daughters, found slain last week in the U.S. state of Georgia, had been beaten to death, according to a newspaper report.

Jane Gakuny Kuria, 46, and daughters Isabela, 19, and Annabelle, 16, were found dead Aug. 1 in their two-story home in Powder Springs. Her son, Jeremy Kuria, 7, and cousin Peter Thande, 10, were both found unconscious at the scene and were hospitalized.

Authorities had not released the cause of the three deaths until Tuesday, and gave few other details in the case.

"We just don't have a lot of information," Cobb County police spokeswoman Officer Cassie Reece was quoted as saying Tuesday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "And we don't want to jeopardize what little information we do have."

Charles H. Kuck, a lawyer handling an asylum case for Jane Kuria, has said she fled Kenya in 2001 because she feared her daughters would have to undergo female circumcision. She had applied for asylum in the United States, but was recently denied.

Kuria and her family opposed the practice female circumcision in Kenya and were targeted for retribution as a result, according to her asylum application. She and her family left Kenya after the death of her husband and the destruction of her home.

The two boys who were injured in the attack were taken to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite. Jeremy was still in critical condition late Tuesday and Peter was in fair condition, the paper reported.

Authorities have yet to make an arrest in the case.