Deborah Mark wondered if Kairissa would have been better off in China

Deborah Wen-Yee Mark, a former Mt. Juliet pediatrician accused in the murder of her 4-year-old daughter, whom she adopted from China, told investigators that the child struck her head on a wall after she flung her down in frustration, according to The Tennessean.

A Wilson County jury heard the admission from [Deborah] Mark on an audio recording the prosecution played in court Tuesday.

Recorded at Vanderbilt University Medical Center as doctors tried to revive the girl, the police interview shows a mother increasingly frustrated by her child’s behavior, admitting to frequently pinching and striking the girl hard enough to bruise.

As the child’s behavior worsened, so too did her mother’s control, according to her statements.

Mark told investigators that as far back as April of that year, she had become frustrated enough with the child’s behavior that she pinched her nipples or thighs on a daily basis. Later, Mark told investigators, she hit Kairissa’s hands so hard that they bruised. In other incidents, she told investigators that she struck the child with a stick her older sister used for karate practice and later an ice pack.

In the 2010 recording, the mother said she and her husband wondered if the girl would have been better off in China but said, “I in no shape or form would have wanted to kill Kairissa.”