HOUSTON (AP) — A Houston mother who calmly told an acquaintance that she had drowned her two children in a bathtub had at first tried to bury their bodies next to her home before placing them under a neighbor’s house, police said Monday.
Sheborah Thomas, 30, was charged Sunday with capital murder of a person under age 6, according to court records. She remained jailed without bond. “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.
Online criminal court records do not list an attorney to comment on behalf of Thomas, who was scheduled to appear before a magistrate judge Monday afternoon. Thomas told investigators that she drowned her two children in a bathtub Friday, wrapped them in sheets and put their bodies in a trash can near her house, police said in a news release. On Saturday, she then tried to dig a hole near the side of her home but couldn’t make it deep enough, so she moved the bodies under a neighbor’s house, according to police. Their bodies were found Sunday.
Authorities did not immediately know whether Thomas also tried to dig a hole beneath her neighbor’s home or just placed the bodies under it. Smith said investigators are still interviewing the woman and have not determined a motive. Autopsies have been ordered.
The acquaintance told authorities he came across Thomas dumping trash in a field, and she told him she needed help moving right away. When the man asked about her kids, she calmly said she had killed them, Smith said.
“She was so matter-of-fact about it, he didn’t think she was serious. He thought she was joking,” Smith said. “He continued to help her pack.” Smith said the man eventually realized something was wrong when he asked again and got the same answer, so he drove the woman to a police precinct.
Investigators don’t yet know whether the mother has a history of mental problems. Smith said. He said police had been to the home before but for “nothing major.” State child welfare officials had visited the family, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services spokeswoman Tejal Patel said, adding she could not disclose the nature of those visits. Patel said a “top to bottom review” of the family will be conducted.
Houston police say Thomas also has a 12-year-old son, but he was with his father. Neighbors told the Houston Chronicle that the family had moved in just a few months earlier. “She would just take her kids to the park; that’s all everyone saw of them,” neighbor Mike Polk told the newspaper.
According to court records, Thomas has several misdemeanor convictions, including for theft and failure to identify oneself to an officer. 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. She was eventually found not guilty by reason of insanity in July 2006 and sent to a state mental hospital.
If she had a fancy costume and a shiny badge her actions would be well within policy.