A Texas mother who calmly told an acquaintance that she had killed her two children drowned them in a bathtub by holding their heads underwater, authorities say.
Sheborah Thomas, 30, from Houston was charged on Sunday with capital murder of a person under age six, according to court records.
According to a probable cause affidavit read during a court hearing before a magistrate judge on Monday, Thomas told police that after she picked up her seven-year-old son and five-year-old daughter from daycare on Friday, she fed them and then prepared a bath for them.
Thomas first called her daughter into the bathroom.
"She grabbed (the daughter) by the head and forced her underneath the water until she stopped moving," according to the affidavit.
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"After she wasn't moving and she wasn't breathing, she took the body out of the water and placed her in the bedroom."
Thomas then called her son into the bathroom and she placed him in the water, authorities said.
The boy struggled against his mother, grabbing her hand, but Thomas "continued to force his head underneath the water until he stopped struggling, he stopped moving," according to the affidavit.
Thomas placed his body next to his sister's in the bedroom and then put them in a garbage bin behind her home, the affidavit said.
Police say investigators are still trying to determine a motive, but it is believed that Thomas acted alone. Autopsies have been ordered.
On Sunday, Thomas tried to first bury the bodies next to her house but was not able to dig a deep enough hole, authorities said. She then rolled the bodies underneath a neighbour's house, according to the affidavit.
Thomas then began packing up her belongings and enlisted an acquaintance who saw her dumping things in a field to help her move.
When the man asked about her kids, she calmly said she had killed them, said Houston police spokesman Kese Smith.
"She was so matter-of-fact about it, he didn't think she was serious. He thought she was joking," Smith said. "He continued to help her pack."
Smith said the man eventually realised something was wrong when he asked again and got the same answer, so he drove the woman to a police precinct.
