New York mom accused of killing newborn twins: ‘Babies wouldn’t let me sleep’
A 911 call was made by a relative who was concerned about the welfare of the children
A young mother has been charged with the death of her infant twins.
Danezja Kilpatrick, 23, is being charged after her babies were found dead in a Queens, New York apartment building. The mother was charged on Friday.
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A 911 call was made by a relative who was concerned about the welfare of the children. According to The New York Times, when officers arrived at the fifth-floor apartment in the Woodside area of Queens, the relative was at the door.
On Thursday, during a news briefing, the Police Department’s Chief of Housing David P. Barrere said that Kilpatrick let the officers enter. They discovered one child “unresponsive with trauma to the body” in a bassinet. When they inquired about the second child, “she pointed towards the sink.” The second baby was discovered under the kitchen sink, wrapped in a blanket inside a black plastic bag.
The twins were a boy and a girl named Dallis and Dakota Bentley. They were just six-week-old.
According to the court records, Dallis was found lying face down, with a knife sticking out of the back of his neck. The mother admitted to placing the twins in the bathtub and running scalding hot water over them. Pine-Sol was also discovered in their bottles. Officials say autopsy results are pending.
“I’m hearing people yelling and screaming,” said a neighbor. “I never heard children.”
Other neighbors who did not provide their names said the young mother took over the apartment after one of her relatives passed away from cancer in February, and her husband passed just months before. Kilpatrick had been in the apartment for about a month.
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Sergeant Carlos Nieves said when the police arrived, the mother made “spontaneous utterances,” and when officers questioned her, she told them, “I didn’t want them anymore…they are dead.”
“The babies wouldn’t let me sleep,” she admitted. “I can’t take it anymore.”
District Attorney Melinda Katz announced on Saturday Kilpatrick is facing life if convicted. She has been charged with two counts each of murder in the first and second degree, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree.
“The babies were just six-weeks-old. This should have been a joyous time for this family, instead the babies’ relatives are mourning their deaths and the sad fact that the one person who should have been their protector and loving caregiver allegedly killed them,” said Katz in a statement on Saturday.
“This is a tragic, heart-wrenching case,” Katz told the Daily News. “Two babies are dead and their mother [is] charged with doing the unthinkable.”
The Administration for Children’s Services is investigating the case with the police.
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