Crime & Safety

'Horrifying': Mother of Dead, Injured Germantown Children in Custody

The mother of two dead and two injured children is in custody and no other suspects are believed to be at large, Montgomery County police said.

By Tiffany Arnold

(Updated 2:48 a.m.) Two children were found dead in a Germantown home Friday morning in a gruesome scene that police are now calling a homicide investigation.

“The reaction is kind of horrifying to any father, any grandfather—I fit in both categories,” said John McCarthy, State’s Attorney for Montgomery County.

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McCarthy spoke to reporters with tears in his eyes as police processed the crime scene.

“It’s a hard case,” McCarthy said.

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The bodies of a 1-year-old boy and 2-year-old girl were found on the second floor of a townhouse in the 19000 block of Cherry Bend Drive. Police said a 5-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy were found injured and were taken to the hospital in serious and critical condition. A woman was hospitalized for minor injuries, according to Montgomery County Police Cpt. Jim Daly, a police spokesman.

Daly said the condition of the children seemed to be “improving.”

The police discovered the bodies after receiving a 911 call from a neighbor at around 9:30 a.m. The neighbor saw a vehicle with its door open and a knife laying outside of the vehicle.

When officers arrived, a woman tried to run out of the back door and was taken into custody for questioning, Daly said.

Friday afternoon the department's website said the woman in custody is 28 years old and the mother of all four children. The other woman, age 21, is not believed to be a family member, but is thought to have lived at the residence.

The identities of those involved will be released following next of kin notification, police said.

No charges have been filed as of Friday night. 

“We do not have an active search at this point,” Daly said “We have accounted for all those who were involved. We have no indication that this was a stranger-based crime or that there's a danger to the neighborhood at this point.”

Details about how the children died have not been released.

Police Visited House Thursday Night

Daly said the chain of events may have begun the night before. Neighbors described hearing at least two scuffles Thursday night.

Sometime between 9:30 and 10 p.m. Thursday, a neighbor called police to report seeing a child unattended in a vehicle for a long period of time outside the residence. But before police arrived, two women reportedly came outside and brought the child indoors.

No one responded when police knocked on the door. 

"Without any other information, officers had no other choice but to clear the scene," Daly said.

Police requested that Child Protective Services check on the house in the morning, according to Daly. 

Friday morning, a neighbor called 911 to report that there appeared to be blood near the same vehicle, which had one of its doors open.

Daly said the keys were left in the car and officers used them to enter the home, where they made the horrific discovery.

“It's almost impossible to tell what happened here,” McCarthy said. “There are far more questions than answers.”

Ed. note: Police have since charged the mother and released her identity and the identities of all four children. Read more on Patch. 


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