A Houston woman was arrested Sunday after casually mentioning to an acquaintance that she had drowned her two children in a bathtub and hidden the bodies under a neighbor’s home, police say.
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Sheborah Thomas, 30, was charged with capital murder and “all indications are she is the one who acted alone” in the deaths of her 7-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter, Houston police spokesman Kese Smith told The Associated Press.
Thomas apparently tried burying the children at first but put them under a neighbor’s house on Tierwester when that proved too hard, Smith said.
Officials say someone who knew the mother was driving by and saw her throwing trash into a vacant lot across the street. Authorities have confirmed that Child Protective Services had visited the home in the past, although they could not elaborate on the nature or date of the visit.
“She was very matter-of-fact in terms of what she stated she had done.” said Kesc Smith, a spokesperson for the Houston Police Department.
‘I never would have thought she would do that. “She was so matter of fact, he didn’t think she was serious”.
After telling him that she needed to move immediately, she confessed, “matter of factly”, that she had killed her children, according to the Chronicle.
The friend drove the woman to a police station and turned her in.
Smith said investigators were still interviewing Thomas and had not determined a motive. They say the woman has no known history of mental illness. She asked him for help moving out of her home.
Her identity has not been released, but police say she is in her 30s and had just moved into her house in April.
“The neighbours were unaware”, Houston Police spokesman Kese Smith told NBC News. “I would have come and got these kids!”
Davis said she had seen the mother around the neighborhood and her children coming home from school on occasion.
A woman who says she is the aunt of the young victims spoke with us Sunday evening.
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In 2001, Houston mother Andrea Yates drowned her five children ranging in age from 7 years to 6 months in the bathtub of her family’s home.
