Police Find 3 Children Dead in Ark. Home

[KIISQueen]

DE QUEEN, Ark. - Police found the bodies of three children lying side-by-side on a bed in their home Saturday after their mother said she smothered them, investigators said.

Officers were sent to the southwestern Arkansas home after the father called authorities from New York saying his wife had confessed to the killings.

Paula Eleazar Mendez, 43, collapsed when officers arrived and was taken to a hospital to be treated for ingesting a toxic substance, officials said. She was under guard there until she could be taken to a jail to face homicide charges, Police Chief Richard McKinley said.

Notes found in the house may disclose a motive, McKinley said, though he would not elaborate.

Officers discovered the 6-year-old twin boys and their 8-year-old sister on a queen-size bed in what appeared to be a master bedroom near the rear of the wood-frame house, said Chris Brackett, a Sevier County sheriff's investigator. The children's names weren't released.

"Why the kids? It's terrible and sad," Brackett said. "I can't think of anything worse."

The children's father, Arturo Morales, 37, is a construction worker in New York. His wife and children had moved to Arkansas because it was safer, said the Rev. Salvador Marquez-Munoz of St. Barbara Catholic Church, where the children were enrolled in catechism classes.

"They were active in the church. She never missed a Sunday," Marquez-Munoz said. "They were just like any other children — bright and lively. I can't believe she could have done this."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060129/ap_on_re_us/triple_slaying_children

This bitch ought to be shot :fal: :fal: :fal:

[RIVERWIDOW]

:fal: I agree but the bleeding hearts will be out in full force for this one. I just dont understand how people can be so forgiving of child killers. I guess they are just better people then me because i say string um up , zat them ,fry them. I dont care how you do it. Who knows, maybe that mother just smothered the child who would have found a cure for cancer. BUT we will never know.

[molecularfire]

I dunno... normally I would be all for killing people who hurt children, much less killing them but... something doesn't make sense here with her being a psycho. She killed the kids in a very clean way, leaving them in bed in order... tried to commit suicide (either that or faking it), no history of abusing the kids or anti-social type behavior... sounds like she might have some psyche issue like depression, delusional disorder, etc... I agree that it sucks but I'm not willing to kill people with psyche problems that we have a decent shot of curing. Does she need treatment, yes. Should she be punished for this, yes. I say treat her depression and if I'm right she should feel pretty crappy about it... probably worse than if she had a quick death.

Of course she could just be completely psycho and just did all this stuff in preparation to be let off easy for killing her children but that doesn't make as much sense to me... I generally don't give people that much credit for their ability to delay gratifiation... or maybe I'm just getting soft in my old age.

[KIISQueen]

UPDATE
Mom Accused of Child Killings Left Notes

DE QUEEN, Ark. - A mother accused of smothering her three young children left notes that officials say could help determine what led to the killings, and her priest said Sunday that she had expressed "tremendous remorse."

Paula Eleazar Mendez, 43, was in a county jail Sunday after being treated at a hospital for swallowing a toxic substance.

She had collapsed as officers arrived at her home Saturday morning in response to a telephone call from the children's father in New York. Inside the home, the officers found the bodies of the children, ages 6 to 8, lying side by side on a bed, said Chris Brackett, an investigator with the Sevier County Sheriff's Office.

"I do not believe there is any dispute as to who killed these three children, and therefore who will be charged," prosecutor Tom Cooper said. "However, we have not determined at this time the particular homicide charge or punishment we will be seeking."

The notes found in the house may help officials better understand what led to the killings, De Queen Police Chief Richard McKinley said, though he declined to disclose their contents.

A family priest who visited Mendez in a hospital Saturday night described a woman experiencing profound sorrow.

"She has tremendous remorse. She is deeply sorry," the Rev. Salvador Marquez-Munoz said Sunday before entering St. Barbara Catholic Church for Mass. "She asked for our prayers and forgiveness because she is realizing how much she has hurt the community, as well."

He identified the children as 8-year-old Elvis and 6-year-old twins, Samanta and her brother Samuel.

Autopsies were planned to determine whether the children had been poisoned or smothered, as their mother told police, Cooper said. The children's faces were not covered when police found them.

Cooper said an emergency room doctor told him Mendez had not ingested enough of the toxic substance to kill herself. Her arraignment is expected Monday, McKinley said.

In the house's yard Sunday was a seven-foot pile of burned papers. A page in a religion book bore the words "vamos a celebrar" — Spanish for "let's celebrate." A child's handwriting was scrawled in blue ink across some papers, and there were charred letters from a labor union in New York City.

The priest said Mendez, who moved to the United States from Mexico 10 years ago, had lived in New York until last summer, when she moved with her children to De Queen because wanted them to live in a safer environment.

He described her as a quiet, devout woman concerned about her children's welfare. She was not working, and her husband was supporting the family with a job in New York, he said. She and the children never missed Sunday services and attended religious education classes.

Mendez seemed "very loving," said M. Rocio Maya, 29, who attended the Mass and said that she had known Mendez for a few months. Maya said that she never saw Mendez strike her children and that she drove them to school, rather than allow them to ride a bus.

The children's father, Arturo Morales, 37, had planned to buy a house in De Queen with Mendez and move there for good, said Maya's husband, Juan Mosqueda.

Morales was to arrive in De Queen before a funeral was to be set.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060129/ap_on_re_us/children_slain

[welfareloser]

:fal: I agree but the bleeding hearts will be out in full force for this one. I just dont understand how people can be so forgiving of child killers.

there are a lot of things i want to say about this, none of them nice. here's an edited version: calling those of us who realize that human beings can be profoundly damaged, to the point that they do horrible things - things that they would never do had they been lucky enough to have the upbringing, brain chemistry, etc that you and i got - "bleeding hearts" ain't real cool.

you think she's happy? cackling wickedly and planning her next misdeed? doubtful.

one day, you may realize: everyone always has their reasons.

none of us "bleeding hearts" want her to ever be in charge of children in her life. we never want to allow her to hurt another human being. we just stop short of anger and punishment for punishment's sake.

isn't forgiveness sorta mandated by that one religion... what's it called...

anyway. please rethink being pissed at the "bleeding hearts." it simply doesn't make sense.

[Sirrich3]

No Forgiveness here!

[bachviet]

Damn crazy mother :disa:

[RIVERWIDOW]

. we just stop short of anger and punishment for punishment's sake.
isn't forgiveness sorta mandated by that one religion... what's it called...
anyway. please rethink being pissed at the "bleeding hearts." it simply doesn't make sense.

I am not pissed at the bleeding hearts, I was simply stating that they will come out in full force to protect this woman. I don't understand why you wouldn't be angry that 3 children are dead and the mothers punishment would not be for punishments sake. It would be because she cold heartedly killed her kids. As for forgiveness that is Gods job not mine.

[Grimm]

I think that many people have been too blessed to understand this. They haven't had those times in their lives wherre they feel so alone and helpless that they just don't know what to do.
Their family has always been there and they lucked out in the genetic lotto so they don't have the depression that sneaks up on so many people.

My dad worked constantly. 12 and 16 hour days were common. My mom was alone with four kids. She couldn't cope some times. One time she just walked out for a few days, my aunt stepped in to help out then. Other times she just started acting strange. Just about anything would set her off, crying, screaming, throwing things... I got very good at disapearing quickly. All in all my mom did a prety good job. But help was available. Several times family members showed up out of the blue to watch us while my mom went out with her sister. Sometimes a cousin came over and spent the week, or we went to spend the week at a cousin's.
Now I know it wasn't happenstance. It was family looking out for family. Parents need a break. When they don't get it, bad things happen. My mom helped her siblings when they needed it, they helped her when she needed it.

When people don't have family to turn to the pressure just keeps builing up. A coping mechanisim has to develop. Sometimes when theat mechanisim fails to develop, someone snaps. They walk out... or smother their children.

Those kids had two parents. The father is just as responsible for their wellbeing as the mother. The father failed to deal with the situation. He placed her in a situation where she had no way to cope. Then he left her alone. She had no family to turn to. She should have turned to her church or friends, but when she was stressed out she would feel ashamed and avoid contact with those that might think less of her for not being able to deal with her kids. So she did nothing. The father was the only one who could have done anything. He failed to pick up the phone and get help.
My father was the one who called family to get my mother help on many occations. He was a proud man, but not so proud that he would endanger his kids.
How could someone NOT see that their spouse was drowning? More likely he didn't care or chose to ignore it.
Generaly, mothers do not just up and decide to kill their children. Perhaps we should look deeper into the situation before assigning blame.

[molecularfire]

I am not pissed at the bleeding hearts, I was simply stating that they will come out in full force to protect this woman. I don't understand why you wouldn't be angry that 3 children are dead and the mothers punishment would not be for punishments sake. It would be because she cold heartedly killed her kids. As for forgiveness that is Gods job not mine.
1) If I thought that she was an evil person who cold-heartedly killed her kids, I would be the first one to string her up by her entrails. That said, with the story that they described here, I don't know that she did this cold-heartedly. I think this should be evaluated in a court of law with the intent to determine if she was of sound mind to know the ramifications of her action, did she have adequate decision making capacity and does she have a medical condition that could be treated and not with the intent of getting vengence for the children. I don't see this as being a bleeding hearts (heck, I barely acknowledge that I even have a heart), I see this as making the best of a bad situation and not compounding a error of one person with one of my own. I don't believe that making decisions based on anger is the best way to go about it.
2) If it isn't prying, what religion do you ascribe to? I am working under the assumption that it is one of the Judeo-christian denominations and if so then I highly suggest you re-read the bible. I'm an agnostic and admittedly it's been a long time since I've read the bible (and for the more religiously informed people on the board please correct me if I'm wrong) but I don't remember that statement to be accurate. I think they just said that he is better at it than us, not that we are free of that responsibility. Like I said, please correct me if either of my two assumptions about your religion is incorrect... what do I know, I'm agnostic.

[RIVERWIDOW]

I was born and raised Catholic. But the church and I had a parting of the ways in about 1970 when they thought everyone should have about 10 kids whether they could support them or not. We also disagreed on the abortion issue. I am not a bible thumper but I do believe in God. I also believe that on judgement day it will be up to God to forgive all and grant absolution.

[molecularfire]

Thanks for letting me know of your religious affiliation... makes it much easier to understand where you're coming from. I actually agree with you on the 10 kids thing and keep flip flopping on the abortion issue so I don't take myself seriously on that issue. The question that I have is based on your interpretation of the bible do you really believe that forgiveness is God's job solely and that we humans aren't required to try?

[RIVERWIDOW]

I think in the every day little squabbles and discord ,yes we should try and forgive our fellow man. But on an issue this big I think God is the only one who can hand down the ultimate forgiveness. I could be a hipocrite and say that I forgive her but what, in the grand scheme of things, does that really matter? I guess what I am saying is yes, we can forgive her or at least try but only God can give the forgiveness that really counts. I am just not willing to try. Children are the most vulnerable people on earth(with oldies ) and it really pisses me off that they are the ones who pay the most. I just cannot and will not forgive crimes against children. If the woman was sane enough to leave notes, she knew what she was doing.

[Memo]

I'm confused what you would be forgiving if you "forgave" her. She hasn't done anything to you :shrug:

[RIVERWIDOW]

I made the comment that it was God's job to forgive not mine and Molecularfire took me to task on Bible context. We were discussing whether or not we should forgive people in everyday life. Thus my post. I was referring to her killing her kids.

[molecularfire]

Thanks for the explaination RW. I guess I've never thought about it that way. I have always interpreted the forgiveness stuff in the bible as how it pertains to me (guess I'm just self-centered). Let me explain... if I am able to forgive someone (and yes, I completely agree with you that cases like this are extremely difficult) that makes me a better person and it's for that goal that I make the effort. Given that this woman has never met me, I doubt that she really gives a flying fig whether I forgive her or not.

I agree with you though, crimes against children are extremely tough for me to deal with. I may not be a particularly nice person in real life but one thing I'll say about myself... I am very protective of children and in general am not considered by many on this board to be the most bleeding heart liberal type of person. It's just that I've seen enough psyche cases (admittedly not my primary interest) to realize that a LOT of them don't have the capacity to understand or stop what they're doing. You take a person with certain specific problems (whether they be diagnosed or not) and put them in a situation and they are going to do the same thing. I have not read the letters that she wrote yet so I can't comment on them specifically but I disagree that just because she wrote letters means that she understood her actions or had the capacity to stop what she was doing.

The question for me is whether she is sick or whether she is evil. If she is evil, I have no problem with harming her immensely then killing her slowly. If she is sick, whether we have a method for treating her sickness. If for example if she was on SSRIs whether she would have done the same thing or not. If the answer to this is yes then yeah, let her fry. If she has a sickness that can be diagnosed and treated then we as a society also bear some of the blame. We failed to be able to help someone in need and because of that three children died. I can't justify to myself killing her to hide my shame. I say treat her so that she understands what she did and have to live with that (and obviously not release her until the doctors are pretty darn sure that she had the proper medical treatment and follow-up to not be a danger to society). For those that we can't treat well enough to feel comfortable with this, I'm ok with locking them up or killing them to save the money.

I think part of it is generational. Previous generations haven't really understood psychiatric diseases very well and tended to put the blame on the diseased. It is only very recently that we are starting to look at them as victims also versus just the perpetrators. I guess in some cases (i.e. the cases that we can treat) I tend to lean that way... maybe I'm just getting soft.

[welfareloser]

...all that stuff...

i totally understand where you're coming from (recovering catholic myself ;) )

but if forgiveness ain't our job... neither is punishment. (in fact, i think the bible pretty clearly makes forgiveness our job, and punishment mostly god's job. ;) ) i dunno. too many people of "faith" seem to take things a few steps too far. their "faith" seems to extend to include an absolute certainty that they are 100% right ... and thus 100% empowered to take action AGAINST other human beings whenever they feel like it, without having to trouble themselves with concern for others' feelings and well-being. i've often quipped that the american bible seems to have an 11th commandment, and it's the most important of all of them. from what i can gather, it goes something like this: "THOU SHALT LIGHTEN JESUS' WORKLOAD WHENEVER POSSIBLE BY JUDGING YOUR FELLOW MAN, AND HANDING OUT APPROPRIATE PUNISHMENTS, TOO... GO AHEAD! DON'T WORRY ABOUT MAKING MISTAKES WHEN MEDDLING IN THE LIVES OF OTHERS! YOU WON'T SCREW UP, BECAUSE JESUS IS ON *YOUR* SIDE!!!" like making sure gays don't get the same rights and priveleges as others... being gung-ho supporting the death penalty... restricting access to birth control... etc.

not saying that describes you... just a tangential thought, really. wanting to string her up reveals an excess of certitude, which is quite unbecoming in a flawed human being. being so sure that you ought to mete out punishment seems mighty unchristian to me.

[RIVERWIDOW]

Forgiving is not #1 on my priority list when it comes to killers. Seeing that they are punished so they don't do it again is. I disagree that if you don't do one you can't do the other. I Believe that the ultimate forgiveness is for God to dispense but punishment for her crimes should be taken care of in the here and now. And I am not a Bible thumper trying to damn all Gays, pro-choicers and pro-death penalty activists. I dont think it is un-Christian at all to expect someone to pay for their crimes. And just to set the record straight, I am pro choice, pro death penalty(obviously) Think any kid who wants birth control should get it and 2 of my best friend are a gay couple who I think should have alot more rights than they have right now. Don't paint me with your all incompassing paint brush. FLAWED though I may be, I am still able to tell right from wrong and killing your kids is just plain WRONG.

[Memo]

I agree killing your kids is just plain wrong. My thing is though...I don't see why people get all up in arms about stuff like this. Perhaps I misread what people say since it's hard to convey emotion or tone in text but when I see people all actively talking about this using :angry: smilies it seems as if people really care. Me however, I could give a damn about some crazy lady I've never met killing 3 kids that I never knew in some place I've never heard of.

[RIVERWIDOW]

Me however, I could give a damn about some crazy lady I've never met killing 3 kids that I never knew in some place I've never heard of.

And I think that is so totally wrong and sad! How can you not care?

[Grimm]

And I think that is so totally wrong and sad! How can you not care?
Exactly what did you do to help? We think that we care because we are horrified about it happening. We place it in the context of "What if something like that happened to MY family". And then we get all rightous.

Did you cry yourself to sleep for a few weeks?
Did you send flowers or money?
How many prayers did you make for those people?
What did you actualy do? Nothing.:nono:

Do we really care about these people that we have never met? Sure, we would undo it if there was some way we could. But that's just common decency.
Don't pick on the guy who speaks the truth. Even if it does hurt a little.

[Memo]

I guess I don't care because death is just part of life. I mean, people die like every few seconds. Only caring about the few deaths that the media feeds us seems so fake to me.

[RIVERWIDOW]

I guess I don't care because death is just part of life. I mean, people die like every few seconds. Only caring about the few deaths that the media feeds us seems so fake to me.

It isn't the deaths that upset me so much as the ages. You are right. People die all the time but it shouldn't be little kids being smothered by their mother.


Don't pick on the guy who speaks the truth. Even if it does hurt a little.

I wasn't picking on him. I was simply stating my feelings over his comment.
My truthful feelings.