Arizona authorities were notified early Saturday morning of a double-murder at a Tempe apartment where they had just separated a disputing couple.
A woman informed the police at around 7 a.m. that she had killed her small children, ages 9 and 7, because she heard voices telling her to do so.
The same woman had, hours earlier, been involved in a fight with her husband at the same address prompting the man to leave the scene.
“At that time, everything seemed to be okay,” Tempe PD spokesperson Steven Carbajal said. “The parties were separated. The children were found to be in good condition and ok and alive at that point.”
“But it was very tragic what officers encountered this morning” since the children were “safe in their beds” when they initially responded to the home.
“It didn’t seem like there was an immediate threat to the children. Parents, couples argue and they have disagreements and they have issues that come up, but that doesn’t always initiate a CPS response.”
The children, a girl, and her younger brother appeared to have obvious signs of physical trauma. The mom is being questioned, police said.
