A mother is facing two counts of first-degree murder charges for the death of her two children. She is expected to make her first court appearance this afternoon in Somerset County in New Jersey after a mental evaluation, reports CBS2
The 36-year-old mother, Yuhwei Chou, was found behind the wheel of a vehicle that had gone off the road in Hillsborough Township with 7-year-old Samantha Ross and 10-month-old Paul Ross “bound and restrained” in the back seat of the car, according to Law and Crime. The children were pronounced dead at the scene.
At least one of the children was bound with duct tape over their eyes and mouth, and there were no obvious injuries or wounds found initially on the children’s bodies, based on a source with direct knowledge of the investigation.
According to law enforcement sources, the kids appeared to have suffocated, reported NBC New York. The medical examiner has yet to conduct an autopsy to rule the cause of death officially. The motive of the murder has not yet been released.
The family is from Montgomery’s Skillman neighborhood, and sources said that there were domestic issues between Chou and her husband. Skillman neighbors say they’ve seen officers at the family’s home before.
“Over the years, I had seen some, like, police cars would come occasionally. We never knew what any of that was about,” Wang-Bailey said.
If convicted, Chou faces the possibility of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first 35 years of any potential sentence. New Jersey does not have the death penalty.
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