'Devoted Single Mother' Stabbed to Death in Front of Her 5 Young Children, Leaving Them 'Devastated,' Best Friend Says By Bailey Richards

Five children are adjusting to their new normal after their mom was murdered.

On July 10, Sharmaine Forpahl, a 32-year-old single mother of five, was stabbed multiple times in the city’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood, and died of her wounds, Cleveland 19 News reported. Police found her body near the door to her home, according to the Ohio outlet.

Forpahl’s children, the youngest of whom is 7 years old, were at the scene of the crime, per Cleveland 19 News. The mom of five was “stabbed to death in front of” them, according to a GoFundMe fundraiser created by the late mother’s best friend, Ciara Drake, on behalf of her kids. 

“Her body was found just a few steps from her front door, leaving her children devastated and without their mother,” Drake wrote.

Charles F. Barkley was arrested and charged in connection with murder for the fatal stabbing — which Drake described as a “domestic dispute” — according to Cleveland 19 News. Barkley, 44, and Forpahl were briefly romantically involved, the outlet reported.

The Cleveland Division of Police did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Saturday, July 19.

Forpahl was “a devoted single mother” to her kids — Harlem, 7, Honesty, 9, Anastasia, 11, Nikiah, 12, and Theodis Jr., 15 — Drake said in the GoFundMe she created for the grieving siblings.

“She recently moved into a peaceful single-family home in a quiet neighborhood, where she enjoyed spending quality time with her children and creating a loving, safe environment for them,” Drake wrote of her best friend in the GoFundMe message, which concluded: “Rest in Peace, Sharmaine. You will always be loved and missed.”

Through the fundraiser — which has raised more than $8,000 of its $10,000 goal as of July 19 — Drake hopes to provide “a financial foundation” for Forpahl’s kids’ “education and well-being.” She also wants to help them remember their mom, she told Cleveland 19 News.

“I’m worried about making sure her memory stays alive for her younger children,” Drake told the outlet. “Because when you lose someone that young, eventually memories start to fade.”

Forpahl’s youngest child, 7-year-old Harlem, “doesn’t really understand that his mom is gone yet,” the late mom’s sister, Sky Harmon, told the Ohio outlet. “And it’s just so sad they have to go through that at a young age.”

“I know you’re playing. … This has got to be a dream,” Harmon tearfully told Cleveland 19 News. “It hurts because I’ll never hear from her.”

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Harmon also said that since the fatal July 10 stabbing, she has been scrolling through old text conversations with her sister, who was always there to help her.

“When I need something, that’s who I’m FaceTiming,” she said of Forpahl. “I can’t do that anymore. It’s like, ‘Who do I got?’ ”

A funeral for Forpahl will be held on July 26, according to her obituary.