The Kenyan woman suspected of having killed her children has owned up and told a Swedish court (through her lawyer Eva Möller) at Attunda court that she killed the kids. The woman was shielded with a yellow sheet held by a court officer to protect her identity. The court proceedings started at 15.30 Swedish time.
The court heard that the woman admitted having committed the crime during an interview yesterday. There were no further details in the case. The prosecutor refused to say how the woman killed the children. She also refused to go into details of an autopsy Report detailing how the children may have been killed.
Okoth Osewe
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Mordmisstänkte kvinnans vän försökte få hjälp
En kvinna har häktats misstänkt för mord på sina två små pojkar. De återfanns döda i måndags, nästan en månad efter att mamman sjukanmält dem till skolan.
Frågan är om familjetragedin i Sigtuna kunnat undvikas om myndigheterna agerat annorlunda?
– Det finns massa frågor som ingen kan svara på, säger Sophia Njoroge.
Hon är god vän till mamman som nu sitter häktad. Mamman till de två pojkarna, 4 och 8 år gamla, som skulle ha börjat skolan igen den 22 augusti efter sommaruppehållet, men som då alltså sjukanmäldes av sin mor. Och som sedan isolerade sig med barnen:
– Vi försökte ringa och skriva via Facebook, men hon svarade inte, säger Sophia Njoroge.
Under veckorna efter 22 augusti har också skolan flera gånger försökt få kontakt med henne. En gång skickar hon ett SMS tillbaka, hon ses på stan en gång, i övrigt är det tyst.
Efter fruktlösa försök per telefon, och med brev om skolplikten åkte personal den 13 september till hennes och pojkarnas bostad. Ingen öppnar.
Per telefon kontaktas då socialförvaltningen för första gången av skolan. Bara någon arbetsdag efter att socialen får in en skriftlig orosanmälan återfinns de unga pojkarna döda i vattnet nära en båtbrygga.
Varför vill du veta vad som hänt din vän var svaret Sophia säger hon fick från socialen som sen inte kontrollera saken närmare.
Eva Hamberg är trygghetschef i Sigtuna kommun. Trots att pojkarna var borta mer än tre veckor innan skolan kontaktade socialtjänsten, och trots att socialen inte gjorde något innan pojkarna dog, så ser hon ännu ingen anledning till självkritik från kommunen.
– Vi har följt de rutiner som vi har men vi kommer naturligtvis att titta på de rutinerna. Visar det sig att vi brister i våra rutiner, gällande skola eller socialtjänst, får vi ändra på de rutinerna.
Tyder inte det här fallet på att rutinerna inte är tillräckliga?
– Nej jag tycker inte man kan säga det innan vi gjort en utvärdering, säger Eva Hamberg.
Samtidigt med frågorna om skolan och socialförvaltningen borde ha gjort något annorlunda försöker Sophia Njoroge förstå hur tragedin egentligen gått till.
Svaren på det söker hon genom att återvända till platsen i Sigtuna där pojkarna återfanns.
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=83&artikel=4710398
sad, sad , sad! God i wonder what she was going through. we think people are strong, but it is only a facade. Jesus have mercy. Lord grant her serenity to deal with all of this!
Kenyanna, u speak very maturely. No sane human being is able to commit such an inhuman thing. only life’s pressures drive you soo deep into such a mess. i believe that she got into a depression and the problems that she had drove her beyond a human being’s limit. May God rest the two souls in peace and give the mother refuge and serenity to overcome this pain. may everyone be their brother’s and sister’s keeper to avoid such occuring again.
Sofia Njoroge >Please open up .Let every snoe be turned upside down.
please tell us more concerning your frendship with this mother .Were you taking care of the 2 kids when their mother was in Kenya during August Month. Where was their father ? How long do you know the father of the dead boys? We want you to open up so that the truth may com-out in the open.
Nancy, am not sure about the importance of answering your questions, especially now. I think what each and every human being should be focusing on is how to ensure this does not happen again.
Depression is a DISEASE, like cancer or a tumor, just that it doesnt affect the physical body but the spiritual being of a person. Many of us might never understand this disease, or will be lucky enough never to go through it.Nevertheless, we should find it in our hearts and souls to try and understand this is a disease. We should also find it in ourselves to express the same emotions, feelings, sadness, grief we go through when we hear someone has cancer or a tumor. The same support we give people with cancer and tumors or any other terminal diseases is the same support (or even more) we should give those in depression, as this is not a tangible disease.
As much as this story has taken my breath, broken my heart into many pieces, I refuse to point fingers, because I believe, I’ll never understand many situations in life until I am in the other person’s shoes. And as long as I live or any other person lives, they will never take the same path as another person, because our difference in personality will make us react differently to each situation we experience. What I have chosen to do is take the lesson and apply it in my life. Really be my brother’s and sister’s keeper, despite the circumstances and pay more attention to mankind. I hope that we all have learnt something and that after we have healed and gotten over the guilt of what we should have done we will apply these lessons in our lives.
Tevin and Elias, R.I.P boys. We know that your last days might not have been easy and WE as adults and citizens of this universe, should have done more to protect you CHILDREN as is our responsibility. I hope you will forgive us. But I also hope you know that you touched each and every person you crossed paths with in your own special way and that you will never be forgotten and our love for you will always remain in our hearts.
Do readers know that the confessed murderer has got a string of close relatives in Stockholm? Why were they not worried about her?
Mothers Who Murder Their Children – by William F. Hogg MD
Findings show that many mothers who murder their chidren had a pre-tragedy history of what would pass for depression in 2000 or 1900. But, it was not always clear-cut until later, when events were reconstructed. In more recent years some had sought professional help within the preceding couple of months. It was received by a few but some were put off. The women didn’t press for help or understanding. After the fact this was recognized as depressive apathy.
After the murders, attempts had been made to discover their earlier prevailing thoughts. Specifically, these were that “the world is a terrible place, the children would be better off dead.” Several had voiced these ideas to a friend, their spouse, or a doctor, but were not taken seriously and dismissed. Surprisingly, many of the listeners agreed in passing that “life can be miserable.” Later, after the killings, many of the women expressed that they thought that they were “doing them a favor killing them, by helping them out of this cruel world, they wont have to face it.” In long term retrospect this can be recognized as delusional thinking. In only a couple of cases were the children seen by their mothers as monstrous or evil, as Satan, etc. That is, the majority were killed out of an excess of love and concern. These sad women kill the most-loved persons in their lives.
In a significant number of cases the women’s dreams in the weeks before the murders were gory and violent, vividly colored, and were of members of the family getting maimed, dismembered, or killed in terrible accidents. (You must remember that dreams were important to psychiatrists in the first half of the twentieth century!)
Many of the women’s lives, pre-murder, had become progressively pressed and pressured. They felt burdened by too much to do and especially in caring for more than one child, often the youngest being less than a year old. They had all seriously planned to kill themselves right after killing the children, in order to join them, but it virtually never happens right at the time—only much later. (One sad woman I personally knew, a cousin in-law, killed herself five years later while still in mental hospital. During visits she constantly expressed perplexity that she couldn’t kill herself along with her child.)
The women’s actions at the time of the murders are relevant. The murders usually take place in the morning, on a final impulse when no one is around. The children are killed with a homely method, ready to hand: a rope, a hammer or even a hatchet, the butcher knife in the bath—rarely by forcible drowning. The child most likely to run or put up a struggle is done away with first. Thus, the killings are not only gruesome and often bloody but seem brutal and coldly callused. The lives of more than one child are usually taken. Right afterwards there is no attempt to conceal the killings, no attempt to hide, run, or escape custody, no attempt to clean or tidy up. The woman immediately tells someone, anyone. She may wander outside and tell a neighbor, or phone her husband at work, or personally call the police.
By police report and other people’s memory, the women are all lucid and seemingly normal when first seen after the killings. There is no denial, little crying (or what would be expected as part of remorse). Thus, the women are strongly declared as cold-hearted—and normal. Normal at this point! Often they are examined within the hour. They were found free of mental illness, even by specialists. Being declared as “normal,” immediate mental help is rare. They are quickly booked and charged with murder. Within 24 hours, however, most of the women break down with overt illness—psychotic depression—and may belatedly attempt suicide. This suicidal attempt is very serious but bizarre. The time between the killings and this breakdown is a true lucid interval. They were psychotically depressed all along. It is as if the act of killing had temporarily shocked them out of killing themselves too.
@ Lereina…i could not have put it any better. thanks
@ Yaani, really? do you personally know how they are related? brothers? sisters? cousins?
no 5. i strongly agree with you. Yours is the only reasonable comment i have read here so far. Yes, we should learn a leason and ensure this doesn’t happen again. Depression is a disease like anyother disease that might affect anyone at anytime in life. My advice to everyone would be ‘learn the signs and symtoms of depression and try to look for those signs i anyone closer to you, and make sure you try to help them somehow.’ I know most of us Africans are so good in making fun of each other. Some of us look at depression as a sign of weakness, which is all wrong. Depression can lead to suicide or i rare cases like this one, murder. In this case i can believe that this mother killed her kids to punish herself.
i do agree that we should look into the way foward so as not to let this ever happen again in our society especially to a fellow country man but again am still hurt by the so called grandmother…………why sympathise now?,what did you do to help after you called the social service and they dismissed you?,you claim to have known they dont have electricity in their home and since you seemed to be so good to them you should have taken the kids in or just footed the bill for her,am suddened by their death and all you do is make me fill more4 sick when i see you dramatising.
@lereinaa, wel u have changed my perception of the whole story, thnks so much, alwayz we got to be each others keeper