MONTAUK, N.Y. — A desperate search for a mother who had threatened to kill her 2-year-old twin daughters ended with the discovery of the girls’ bodies in the woman’s car, police on New York’s Long Island said Friday.
Tenia Campbell, 24, was arrested in the deaths of her daughters Jasmine and Jaida, who were found inside Campbell’s vehicle at the entrance to a park in Montauk on Thursday.
Suffolk County police said they received a 911 call from Campbell’s mother saying her daughter was threatening to kill herself and her children.
Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said a dispatcher was on the phone with Campbell for 12 minutes, during which time Campbell was hysterical and would not say where she was, Newsday reported.
Campbell “indicated the girls were already deceased,” Hart said at a news conference Friday.
Officers from several departments joined the Suffolk police in searching for Campbell. East Hampton police found her at the entrance to the Montauk County Park Third House Nature Center and tried to resuscitate the two children, authorities said. But the girls were pronounced dead at a hospital. The medical examiner’s office will determine their cause of death.
Campbell was taken into custody at the scene and later charged with two counts of second-degree murder. It’s unclear whether she has a lawyer who can speak for her.
Campbell lived in Medford with her daughters and a 4-year-old son, Newsday reported. Neighbor Akira Anderson said the boy was with his father.
Anderson called Campbell “an amazing mother” who was always playing with her children. She said the twins were “just amazing little girls, running around, smiling.”
