After keeping her gruesome secret for days, a woman accused of killing a pregnant acquaintance and her fetus finally told police she drowned the woman’s three children and stuffed them into a washer and dryer, authorities have told the Associated Press.
Preliminary autopsies on the children appeared to show they were drowned, said Ace Hart, a deputy St. Clair County coroner.
As of Sunday, Tiffany Hall, 24, had not been charged in the children’s deaths, but prosecutors on Saturday accused Hall of killing their mother, Jimella Tunstall, 23, and her fetus. The fetus had been cut from her womb, authorities said.
Police have not said what the motive was.
Hall remained jailed Sunday on $5 million bond, charged with first-degree murder in Tunstall’s death and with intentional homicide of an unborn child.
She likely will be arraigned Monday on the two charges, each carrying a penalty of 20 to 60 years or life in prison, prosecutors said. The murder count could be punishable by the death penalty.
According to the autopsies, there were no signs of physical abuse or trauma on the children – ages 7, 2, and 1 – and toxicology tests were pending “to see if they were poisoned or possibly drugged,” Hart said.
The community turned to prayer Sunday to understand the slayings at a service for the family.