The victims are two of the woman's other children, two of her nieces, and her sister, who she has blamed for some of the deaths.
Police have charged a woman and her teenage daughter with the murders of five relatives, including three children, after officers found them in an apartment alongside the bodies.
Shana Decree, 45, and Dominique Decree, 19, were arrested by officers on Monday after the disturbing discovery in the suburbs of Philadelphia - the largest city in the state of Pennsylvania.
The victims included two other children of Ms Decree, Naa'Irah Smith, 25, and Damon Decree Jr, 13, as well as her sister Jamilla Campbell, 42, and nine-year-old twin nieces Imani and Erika Allen.
Other family members have said they begged authorities for weeks to check on Shana due to concerns she had fallen under the influence of a religious cult and planned a family murder-suicide.
Court documents filed on Tuesday revealed that she spoke to police about death and suicide when they found her at the home, and told officers that "everyone at the apartment wanted to die".
She said Ms Campbell - whose 17-year-old son Joshua was not at home when his aunt and cousin are alleged to have carried out the murders - had killed two of the victims before killing herself.
Toya Nelson, 29, another niece of Ms Decree, said: "We've been trying to call for three weeks and I'm so angry at city officials because we've been calling them.
"It just makes me angry because now they want to be sorry but you had the opportunity to save them."
Joshua was at a friend's house at the time, and local Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said finding him was the "one bit of good news" of what he described as an "unspeakable tragedy".
No cause of death has been given for any of the five, who were all found in the same bedroom.
Police chief George McClay said the rest of the apartment was in "disarray", with broken walls and glass, overturned furniture, and other clutter scattered across the floors.
The suspects were found in a "disorientated" state and with visible injuries to their necks by child welfare officials who were carrying out an unannounced check on the home on Monday afternoon.
As well as five counts of homicide, the women have also been charged with one count each of conspiracy and were each due to appear in court on Tuesday.
The deaths come just a few months after Philadelphia saw off its worst year for murders in more than a decade.
Last year the city's murder rate was up 11% on the year before and higher than New York City and Los Angeles, despite those having significantly larger populations.
Comments
Post a Comment