Valley school honors murdered children with vibrant memorial mural

CHANDLER, Ariz. — It’s a lesson no kid should ever have to learn. But at Kyrene del Cielo Elementary School in Chandler, it came in 2021.

In May of that year, fifth-grader Mia Inoue and her second-grader brother Kai were murdered by their mother at their home in Tempe.

Their mother, Yui Inoue, was sentenced to life in prison for their murders last week.

“I think the loss for our fifth graders with Mia was more difficult because they had a little bit better understanding of how permanent death is,” said Principal Kristin Kingsland. “But I think for Kai, being in second grade, the younger children didn’t understand it as much.”

Kingsland was the school’s vice principal when the tragedy rocked the school community.  At the sentencing last week, former principal Tammy Thaete read an impact statement to the judge.

Thaete said one of the hardest things to do was to guide the school community through the murders of their students, their friends.

“Although they were both children, I want this court to know their short lives mattered,” Thaete said as her voice choked up.

RELATED: ‘It’s incomprehensible:’ Tempe mom convicted of killing her two kids sentenced to life in prison

For the past few years, Mia and Kai have been honored in the halls of their school with a mural.

“We wanted to do something to memorialize the students,” said current Principal Kristin Kingsland.  “Because school really was a wonderful place for them. They loved being here at school.”

The mural shows Mia reading a book in a tree, while Kai plays on one of the branches.  There are birds, flowers and cats, which Mia loved. Kai is wearing his signature red shoes.

“No matter what outfit he had on, he always had his red sneakers on,” Kingsland said. “That’s just one of the things we all remember fondly about them.”

The kids’ artwork from school is hanging on the tree branches.

“Both the children loved art class,” Kingsland shared. ” We felt like we wanted to capture some of their art.”

The artwork is vibrant, just like the kids were.

“I think it just really means to us that we just want to have positive memories of the kids.”

Kingsland said the idea for the mural came from school staff and the PTO.  She said it was created by muralist Suzanne Whitaker.  There is also a bench below the mural with the kids’ names engraved.

While the children’s father was in town for the trial, she said he was able to come to the school and see the mural.

State prison records show that on Tuesday, Yui Inoue was admitted to Perryville, the women’s prison in Goodyear, where she’ll serve the rest of her life behind bars.