By
Associated Press
The Latina mother of three children arrested last weekend after her children were found dead in her Los Angeles home was charged Tuesday with murder.
Angela Flores, 38, is accused of having killed Natalie, 12;
Kevin, 10;
and Nathan, 8. Her bodies were discovered Sunday morning at her home in the West Hills neighborhood, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced.
The cause of their deaths remains under investigation and has not been disclosed.
Police reported that Flores admitted to killing them and claimed that she had been helped by a teenager.
Flowers and dolls outside a home in the West Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles on Monday, May 9, 2022.AP
The 16-year-old was arrested along with her, but the district attorney's office has not reported any charges against him.
He is in a juvenile detention center.
Flores had several other children, but the authorities have not indicated until now if she was also the mother of the detained teenager.
The woman remains in jail on $6 million bail.
[The murder in Colombia of a Paraguayan prosecutor points to organized crime]
"We all mourn these children. The loss of their young lives is a tragedy that has affected our entire community," District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement.
California imposes a 6 million dollar bail on the Latina mother who murdered her three children
May 10, 202201:26
Investigators have not released any possible motive for the killings.
Seven hours before the children were found dead, the mother was taken to a hospital and neighbors reported that she had been acting strangely.
Prisila Canales, who lives near the house where the murders took place, told reporters there was a disturbance late Saturday night during which Flores screamed and acted erratically until someone called authorities.
[US gun deaths in 2020 reached the highest number in almost 30 years]
Canales said paramedics put the woman on a stretcher and that she struggled and yelled, "Where's my Bible!"
Shortly before 1 a.m., firefighters responded to a "medical response" request from the police department, a firefighters spokeswoman told the Los Angeles Times.
Neighbors leave candles on the front door of a ranch-style home in the West Hills neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, Monday, May 9, 2022.AP
Jacob Corona, Flores's ex-husband, told that newspaper that she made strange comments when he called her almost a week before the murders.
"He was telling me all these things about God. It didn't sound right. I don't really know what happened," Corona said.
"Before I wasn't really religious," she said, "but then later she was talking about death. I said, 'what's going on?'
My head was going over a lot of things, but I didn't think of anything [bad]."
The couple married in 2001 and divorced in 2007. They had a son together who did not live with Flores and who is not among the victims.
Neighbors of the mother who killed her children heard someone "screaming crazy" before the macabre discovery
May 9, 202201:50
The children's deaths were being investigated by the Police Juvenile Division's abused children unit.
The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services said it could not comment on whether he had been involved with the family, the newspaper reported.