BOSTON (AP) – A woman remained hospitalized Monday with stab wounds, a day after police who were sent to her house to check on the family found her two children dead.
Officers entering the home in the Roslindale neighborhood Sunday night found the children, a boy and a girl, dead in the duplex on Maynard Street. Police originally said the children were stabbed to death, but backed off that on Monday evening and did not give an updated cause of death, pending autopsy results.
The mother is being treated at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Police described it as an apparent domestic incident.
Officers arriving on what was described as a well-being check were initially unable to gain access, but eventually got into the home by dislodging an air conditioner, Police Superintendent John Gallagher said.
“This is not a random incident. We are confident the neighborhood is still a safe neighborhood at this point,” said Gallagher, adding there were no arrests and no search for suspects.
Police would not immediately identify the children, reported to be 10 and 12, nor the mother. The woman’s condition was not released Monday.
Friends and relatives said the woman had been distraught after leaving her job at Children’s Hospital.
Hospital spokeswoman Elizabeth Andrews said that the woman resigned last week, but wouldn’t comment on the circumstances of the woman’s employment.
Monica Perez, who called herself a friend of the mother, said the woman called her Saturday and threatened to kill herself.
“She said she was giving up,” she said.
Perez’s boyfriend, Juan Gonzalez, said the woman was desperate but never threatened to hurt her children.
“She was a nice person, she was a good mother. She loved those kids so much,” he said.
The Department of Social Services launched an investigation of the mother for child neglect in 1998, but found the problems resolved when the case was closed in 2000, spokesman Michael McCormack said.
“There were no issues that would raise to the level of concern that we’re seeing today,” said McCormack, who would not release the names of the family members or details of that investigation.
AP-ES-07-30-07 1733EDT
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