Girl, 10, reveals mum told her 'we're going to die' before crashing car and trying to stab her daughters on a motorway

From the Newshound archive · first published 8 October 2026.

A 10-year-old girl has testified that her mother, Janieka Ellington, 35, warned her 'we're going to die' before deliberately crashing their car into a lorry on an interstate near Seattle, then producing a knife and attempting to stab both daughters. Prosecutors say Ellington intended to kill her two children in the attack. Off-duty soldiers who witnessed the roadside assault intervened to stop the stabbing.

Ellington is accused of deliberately steering the SUV into a lorry before turning on her daughters with a knife.

Soldiers passing the scene stepped in to halt the attack, prosecutors say, before emergency services arrived.

The 10-year-old's account of her mother's chilling warning — 'we're going to die' — is now central to the prosecution's case.