Mireya Alejandra Lopez, 22, confessed to the tub drowning deaths of her 2-year-old twin boys on Sunday and has been charged with homicide and attempted murder.
She was prevented by a relative from drowning a third child, according to the incident report. That unidentified toddler wasn’t harmed.
Lopez allegedly told first responders at her suburban Phoenix home this weekend that she “intentionally drowned” both of her twin boys, although not providing a motive for the double slaying.
The victims were found dead together in an adjacent bedroom and autopsies are now pending to verify their cause and manner of death.
A police spokesman declined to confirm whether in fact the two toddlers appeared to have been killed in a bathtub, or elsewhere by different means.
But “I wouldn't rule it out,” he said. “When we arrived, they were on the bed. We won't officially say it's a drowning until they go through an autopsy.”
The biological father of the slain twins shared custody with the mother and informed reporters for The Arizona Republic that the young woman suffered from mental illness but had never before been violent.
He didn’t reveal whether Lopez’s state of mind was caused by post partum depression, or due to a preexistent condition. At this time, though, there appears to have been no prior incidences involving domestic abuse or police at her address.
