A Los Angeles mom has admitted to killing three of her seven children on Mother’s Day with the help of her 16-year-old son.
Mom of seven Angela Flores, 38, was booked into the LA County jail Sunday night on three counts of murder for allegedly killing two of her boys and a 12-year-old daughter. Her bail was set at $6 million.
The 16-year-old also was arrested on one count of murder and was being held at the Sylmar Juvenile Hall.
Dan Scott, a retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigator who worked on child murders and abuse, also called Sunday’s killings “a very rare case.”
Scott said he has heard of killings of children by a mother or parental figure in which another child is essentially forced into participation by the parental figure. “In cases I investigated, it became clear the child did it out of self-preservation,” Scott said.
He said the juvenile’s arrest for murder may mean the child helped in some way but does not mean he committed the actual deadly act.
Police responded to a report of an assault with a deadly weapon about 7:40 a.m. Sunday at the home on Victory Boulevard and found the three victims, Natalie, 12, twins Nathan and Kevin, 8.
LAPD said Flores confessed to killing her children with the assistance of the 16-year-old.
The cause of their deaths was not immediately released. Flores’ three other children live out of state with their father and were not harmed.
Jacob Corona, Flores’ ex-husband, said she called him Tuesday night, nearly a week before the children were killed, and made several odd comments.
“She was telling me all this stuff about God. She didn’t sound right. I don’t really know what happened,” Corona said.
Corona said they married in 2001 and divorced in 2007. The two had not spoken regularly since their divorce, Corona said. They have a child together, but that child is not among the dead and did not live with Flores.
“So when she called me, I had my doubts. She was not really religious before. But then she was talking about death. I told her, ‘What’s going on?’ My head was going over so many things, but I didn’t think anything of it,” Corona said.
“I didn’t know her situation,” Corona said.
Neighbors reported that Flores had been acting erratically Saturday night when they seen her.
She was reportedly heard screaming, praying and lighting candles at other homes on the street.
“I heard someone screaming, ‘My family is abusing me,’ and all kinds of nonsense. I couldn’t make out what it was.” Priscila Canales said. “I guess at that time she was in our neighbor’s yard … burning a candle and she had the Bible out.”
She said that when Flores was removed on a stretcher, “she kept popping up, jumping up saying, ‘Where’s my Bible? Where’s my Bible?’”
Authorities have not said how the children died or disclosed a possible motive for the crime.
The Facebook page belonging to 38-year-old Flores was still online this week, providing some clues about the family’s life.
No photos of Flores’ children were uploaded to her page, and apart from an occasional post around the time of her own birthdays, no information was posted by her about her family life. In the various details provided by Flores about herself on the social media site, nowhere does it mention that she’s a mother.
Her profile photo shows a smiling blonde woman, with long, carefully-curled hair. On May 1 she had added a new banner photo for the top of her page, featuring a sign reading: “Evangelist: Noun… ‘A person who seeks to convert others especially by public preaching.’ A zealous advocate of a cause.”
“The deaths of these three children are truly horrific and tragic. As a parent and a grandparent, I send my heartfelt condolences to the people who love them,” LA County District Attorney George Gascon said in a statement.
“We will continue to work with Los Angeles police detectives and my prosecutors will make a filing decision once they have reviewed all of the evidence,” he added.
