What is it with these mothers?

[جوري]

Mom and Kids Found Hanging, One Child Lives
By ANGELA K. BROWN
source
AP
HUDSON OAKS, Texas (May 29) - A relative found the bodies of a 23-year-old woman and her four small daughters hanging in a closet in their mobile home in Texas Tuesday morning, all of them dead but an 8-month-old, who was taken to a hospital, the sheriff said.

Authorities did not immediately release the identities of the victims in the Oak Hills mobile home park, about 25 miles west of Fort Worth.

The woman's sister, who lived nearby, had stopped at the home after the woman failed to show up for work, Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said. He said the sister rescued the infant when she realized the baby girl was still alive.

The other children, ages 5, 3 and 2, had all had been hanged with strips of clothing and sashes, Fowler said.

"It's terrible, terrible," he said.

The infant was taken to Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth and was in good condition, Fowler said.

Neighbors in the rural community of 1,600 were stunned. Less than five years earlier, another Hudson Oaks family was torn apart when Dee Etta Perez, 39, shot her three children, ages 4, 9 and 10, before killing herself.

Fowler said the hangings Tuesday also appeared to be murder-suicide, but the investigation was still under way.

The young mother and her girls were last seen alive Monday evening, he said. She was believed to be separated from her husband, who Fowler said has been notified of the deaths.

I just got a big kick out of watching the kids play over there on her porch, and today it's sad, very sad," said neighbor Joyce Harris.

Texas has seen a disturbing number of child killings by mothers in recent years.

Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the family's Houston bathtub in 2001. In 2003, Deanna Laney beat her two young sons to death with stones in East Texas , and Lisa Ann Diaz drowned her daughters in a Plano bathtub. Dena Schlosser fatally severed her 10-month-old daughter's arms with a kitchen knife in 2004.

All four of those women were found innocent by reason of insanity. Yates initially was convicted of capital murder, but it was overturned on appeal.

Associated Press Writer Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed to this report.

[ummzayd]

awful. straight away I'm thinking, she's 23 years old, a single mother with 4 children under 5 and a job. and living in some kind of trailer park. it's giving me palpatations just thinking about how stressful her life was.

murdering your own children seems incomprehensible but I did read an article a while back, basically saying that if a person feels so hopeless and desperate and suicidal themselves they may believe that their children are 'better off' dead too, and in a bizarre way it seems to them an act of love to end their lives.

May Allah swt grant the innocent little ones jannah ameen.

[tomtomsmom]

That is twisted. Yet another example of how the system has failed. No doubt about it, this lady had issues. But I find it hard to believe that she woke up one morning and said "hmmm I think I will kill my kids today". There were warning signs for sure. Signs that were rather over looked or were known of and fell through the cracks. Sad, just sad.

[جوري]

She isn't the only one... there is been a series of these scary broads, a woman drowns five of her kids in bathtub, another puts her two sons in a car and drives it into the water to be with her lover... it really freaks me out... I am sorry to say this, but if you know how to make children know how to be responsible for them, this isn't some joke, it is human life. I try to be rational and think they are psychologically disturbed , but all I really want to do is pummel them. I can't stop myself of having a mental image of these children in their last minutes coming to grip, that the only love they have known is betraying them in the most vile manner. Akhhhhhhh

[tomtomsmom]

Ohhh trust me sister I understand. When the lady drowned her 5 kids I threw the remote at the TV and broke out TV. My husband wouldn't let me watch the news for months!!!!!!!

These women are sick and need help. The system failed to do that. Yes, it is their fault that they killed their own children. But it is just as much the husbands, the grandparents, the social worker, the pediatricians fault. Someone in each and every one of these womens lives had to of known that they were not stable.

[syilla]

Bro Woodrow should investigate...and tells us more on the details.

Maybe he can stop by at the place

[fatima_01]

it kinda reminds me abt the sikh lady who was stuck in an arranged marriage then she took her child or children dunno propley n anyway she jumped in front of a train

[Strzelecki]

As was said earlier in the thread, surely there was warning signs.
Really sad that things like this happen.

[glo]

I agree with tomtomsmom

These things happen when there are no support systems in place to recognise the warning signs and help the person in need.

I guess that extended families fulfill that kind of role in many cultures, but in the Western society most people don't live in extended families anymore. Society has tried to create other ways of providing such support, but health and social care services don't have enough to meet all the need! And many people fall through the net.

Sadly, many people hide behind the government support systems. 'That's nothing to do with me. It's a job for Social Services!' they say, and turn a blind eye to their needy neighbours ...

I truly feel that as a society we will have to wake up and start taking responsibility for those around us. It requires each and everyone of us to do a little thing each day. No matter how small ... if enough people do it, it will turn the tide.

Stories like these break my heart.
I cannot begin to imagine the despair and hopelessness a young woman must feel to do such things to her children and herself!

Peace