Funeral for NY mom who took kids to death in river

SPRING VALLEY, N.Y. (AP) - A service for 25-year-old LaShanda Armstrong, of Newburgh, is scheduled for Thursday in Spring Valley...

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SPRING VALLEY, N.Y. (AP) — The funeral for a suicidal New York woman who took three children to a frigid death in the Hudson River comes the day after what would have been the first birthday of her youngest.

A service for 25-year-old LaShanda Armstrong, of Newburgh, is scheduled for Thursday in Spring Valley.

Armstrong loaded her four children into a minivan April 12 after an argument with the man who fathered the three youngest. She drove down a boat ramp in Newburgh into the river.

The oldest child, 10-year-old La’Shaun Armstrong, escaped and survived. The youngest, Laianna Pierre, would have turned 1 on Wednesday. Relatives sang “Happy Birthday” to her at the river.

The children will be buried next week in different cemetery than their mother.

Their father is not expected at the funeral.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.

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