'Suicidal' mom whose 2-year-old twin girls were found dead in parked minivan charged with murder
A mother, who had threatened to kill herself and her two toddlers has been charged with murder after the girls were found in a minivan, parked in a Montauk park, in cardiac arrest. The Long Island woman, 24-year-old Tenia Campbell who is originally from Medford was charged with two counts of second-degree murder of her two girls, Jasmine and Jaida, Suffolk police said.
The three were found in Montauk County Park at approximately 4 pm in the evening on Thursday following which the kids were taken to Stony Brook Southhampton Hospital, where they were pronounced dead. The New York Post reported that the kids had no obvious signs of trauma on their bodies and the police did not confirm the cause of death yet.
They were on the search for them after Campbell's mother called 911 in the afternoon, at 2.30 pm. "Suffolk County Police Department, assisted by the New York State Police, Suffolk County Park Rangers, Southampton Town Police and the East Hampton Town Police conducted a massive, countywide search for her," Suffolk police said in a statement.
"East Hampton Town Police officers located Campbell at the entrance of the Montauk County Park Third House Nature Center, at 1929 Montauk Highway, at approximately 4.05 pm." The officers took Campbell into custody and attempted life-saving efforts on her two children, the statement said.
"They had twin Power Wheel Jeeps, and they would always come outside and ride them around while the brother would chase them, laughing and giggling," said a neighbor who lives across the street, Aleshia Pike. "They were just your typical little girls — playful happy," she said of the twins. The woman had moved into the house near Pike in January with her girls and older brother.
She will be arraigned on June 28 in East Hampton Town Justice Court.
