Two Texas mothers are facing serious criminal charges in unrelated child death investigations that authorities say involved troubling circumstances, including allegations of violence, drowning, and drug exposure.
In San Antonio, police arrested a South Texas woman Friday after the bodies of two young children were discovered inside a burning vehicle in a warehouse parking lot.
According to San Antonio Assistant Police Chief Jessie Salame, a person walking a dog called authorities between 5 and 6 a.m. after spotting a car on fire in the 500 block of Richland Hills Drive.
After firefighters extinguished the blaze, investigators found the bodies of a 5-year-old child and a 7-year-old child inside the small vehicle, Salame said.
Police later arrested the children’s mother, 34-year-old Marlene Vidal of Edinburg, and charged her with capital murder.
“We have statements made by the suspect, along with surveillance video and evidence from the scene, that indicate she was solely responsible for the death of these two children,” Salame said at a news conference.
Authorities said Vidal appears to have family ties in San Antonio. Investigators have not released the identities of the children or their causes of death.
Police said a motive remains under investigation.
“However, there are indications that mental health issues may have played a role,” Salame said, Fox 4 KDFW reported.
In a separate case near Houston, a Katy mother has been charged months after her two young daughters were found unresponsive in a backyard swimming pool and later determined to have cocaine in their systems.
Laura Nicholson, 23, faces two felony counts of injury to a child in connection with the deaths of 3-year-old Kinsley Kite and 2-year-old Kelsey Kite.
Investigators with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said the girls were found on February 11 in the family’s backyard pool at a home in the 21000 block of Creek Edge Court in west Harris County. Their grandmother discovered the children and called for emergency assistance.
The girls were flown to area hospitals, where they were pronounced dead.
Autopsies completed on April 30 found the primary cause of death for both children was drowning combined with acute cocaine toxicity. Toxicology reports confirmed cocaine and cocaine metabolites were present in their blood, investigators said.
Nicholson told detectives she had fallen asleep on a couch inside the home and woke up after hearing her mother scream. Authorities said Nicholson and her family lived together at the residence.
Nicholson reportedly acknowledged that she was aware the door latch was broken and that the girls had often gotten out of the house to run to the pool. Nicholson had also been previously questioned by CPS about her alleged drug use.
After a month-long investigation, Nicholson was charged on May 8 and arrested three days later in Lee County, Florida, near Fort Myers. Authorities said members of the Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force located her at a mental health treatment facility.
She remains jailed in Florida awaiting extradition to Harris County.
No additional charges have been announced in the case, which remains under investigation.
