DALLAS (Reuters) - Three children and their mother were found hanged in a mobile home west of Fort Worth and a fourth child, an 8-month-old baby, was also found hanging but survived, police said on Tuesday.
"We have four deceased in a mobile home out here, three children and one adult female who is the mother of the children and then we have an 8-month-old child who has survived," said Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler.
He said the deaths at first glance appeared to be a murder-suicide but authorities needed to investigate.
"We're not prepared to say exactly what happened here yet," Fowler told Reuters by telephone.
The incident occurred about 25 miles west of Fort Worth.
Local media reported that all of the victims were female and that the deceased mother and her husband were separated.
The condition of the surviving infant was not immediately clear but she had been taken to a hospital in Fort Worth.
Fowler said "horrendous" was the only way to describe the grisly incident which was given saturation coverage by local and national news networks, underscoring the horror it inspired in a country hardened by high rates of violent crime.
If this is related to postpartum depression then 1.) Tom Cruise should eat crow and 2.) Scientists should get going on some form of preventive medication.
This is just crazy!
Posts: 2079 | From: 'by any means necessary' - Malcom X | Registered: Mar 2007
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Yeah, horrible findings, I assume the mother killed herself and her daughters.
How amazing the baby survived. My god, what a tragedy!
It could be postpartum depression, real depression or a combination of both.
We had a mother going into the snow accompanied by her three little children two years ago here in Germany...... they found all four lying dead on a field, barefoot, the mother was holding a bible in her hand.
Posts: 30135 | From: The owner of this website killed ES....... | Registered: Feb 2004
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This is just sick. Kill yourself, I don't care, but leave the children alone.
Posts: 8794 | From: 01-20-09 The End of an Error | Registered: Dec 2004
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I agree i can not imagine taking the life of one of my children,who knows what was going through her mind at the time,maybe i should not judge her,i dont suppose anyone will ever know the reason why.she did this horrendus act.she choose to kill her self her choice but,the children did not ask to die.
Posts: 126 | From: england | Registered: May 2007
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What is it about Texas, seriously? There have been 3 or 4 women there who have killed entire families of children. Posts: 8794 | From: 01-20-09 The End of an Error | Registered: Dec 2004
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Texas woman hangs herself and family By Angela Brown
A 23-year-old mother apparently hanged herself and her four small daughters in a closet in their mobile home in Texas.
An eight-month-old survived and was taken to a hospital.
Authorities did not immediately identify the victims in the Oak Hills mobile home park, about 40 kilometres west of Fort Worth, Texas, in this rural community of 1,600 people.
The woman's sister, who lived nearby, forced her way into the locked home after the woman failed to show up for work.
Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said the sister rescued the infant when she realised 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 horrendous. That's all I can say," he said. "It's just something you don't want to see."
The infant was listed in good condition at a Fort Worth hospital, Fowler said.
The sheriff said the hangings appeared to be murder-suicide because the trailer's doors were locked from the inside and a relative said the woman had been depressed.
The young mother and her girls were last seen alive Monday evening, he said. She was believed to be separated from her husband.
"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 neighbour Joyce Harris.
Texas has seen a number of child killings by mothers in recent years.
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.
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 that verdict was overturned on appeal.
it was awful, i knew neighbours of the family who had to help the husband when he came home to find his wife and little boys dead. I found it hard to believe that people i could have walked past every day were killed in this way, the whole community was really shaken by it, how anyone could do this to their children is beyond me.
Posts: 1017 | From: uk | Registered: Mar 2006
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