A terrible crime took place in an apartment in the San Joaquin Valley, California, last Wednesday, in which three children under the age of nine were found dead, apparently at the hands of his mother who was injured in an alleged suicide attempt.
The Merced County Sheriff’s Office explained that the agents they were called to the residence for a wellness check on the day mentioned. Upon arrival, they found the three dead children and their mother, barely alive and suffering “what appeared to be self-inflicted wounds”.
The children have been identified as Anna Ortiz Lara, 8, Matteo Ortiz Lara, 5, and Alexa Ortiz Lara, 3. While his mother and alleged murderer is Patricia Ortiz, aged 31 years old.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, after killing his children, Patricia tried to take her own life, but was helped by the agents and was taken to a local hospital. The woman “will be transported to the Merced County Jail and booked on three counts of murder,” he adds.
The authorities have not reported the current state of health of the mother and there is no details of the cause and the manner in which the minors died, since the investigation is ongoing.
The Merced Sun-Star reports that the police arrived at the scene and found a person outside yelling for help. A neighbor who remained anonymous “for fear of her safety” told the newspaper that heard Ortiz’s husband screaming for help that same day.
“Help me, my children”, supposedly the man shouted..
“He iswell was going crazy”, he said. “A man was helping (Ortiz) while she was in the bathtub. His wrists had been cut and he was bleeding. A guy was helping her trying to make sure she was alive,” said the neighbor who would have entered the apartment after the crime.
Likewise, she reported that the appearance of the corpses suggested that the children had been dead for hours when they were found. “His lips were already blue,” he added.
The neighbor suggests that the end of the marriage between the defendant and her husband last summer had resulted in a visible deterioration of “mental health” in recent months, leaving Ortiz “distressed”.
While MCSO spokesman Daryl Allen said the community was shocked by such unusual violence.
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