Mother of 2 children found dead in Kenosha home out of hospital, in custody

KENOSHA, Wis. (WLS) -- The mother of two young children found dead in their Kenosha, Wisconsin, home early Saturday morning has been released from the hospital Sunday and is in police custody, officials said.

The father of the young boy and girl found them dead Saturday morning inside their own rooms and now police think they know how it all happened.

Police Sunday confirmed a lot of what the victims' families said Saturday, saying they are pretty sure that the children's mother, 34-year-old Lucia Hernandez, is responsible for the children's deaths.

Rosalinda Gutierrez has known Hernandez for years and is trying to make sense of the senseless. She is just beginning to try to understand how Hernandez could have killed her two young children, as police say she apparently did.

"The only thing I can say is, tell God to forgive her," Gutierrez said. "Maybe she didn't know what she was doing. I can't judge her because I don't know what was happening in her mind at the moment."

It was just after 3 a.m. Saturday morning when Juan Arellano came home from work to find his two children, 1-year-old Javier and 3-year-old Alicia dead, Hernandez covered in blood after apparently trying and failing to kill herself.

Sunday, police said they found enough evidence inside the house to charge her with murdering the children, including a detailed written statement.

"There is a journal outlining what was done to each child, the time each child stopped breathing, what was given to the children, what she did to herself," said Chief John Morrissey, Kenosha Police Department.

While an autopsy has yet to be performed, investigators say they have a pretty good idea how Hernandez killed the children.

"The children were probably given medication, then suffocated," Chief Morrissey said.

The murders have rallied the neighbors around the family. A growing memorial sits in front of the house and a Go Fund Me page has been set up to help with the children's funeral expenses.

Police say in addition to the written account of her actions found inside the house, Hernandez mailed her sister a package with a note telling her what she was going to do the day before. That package didn't arrive until after it was too late.