News
Police: South Carolina mother admits to suffocating children
By: cnn.comPosted On: 08/17/2010 1:57 P
South Carolina authorities will bring murder charges against a woman who admitted to suffocating two of her children, who were found in a car submerged in a river Monday, Orangeburg County Sheriff Larry Williams said in a news conference Tuesday.
Investigators had previously identified "some issues that needed to be unraveled" in the case, he said, but as 29-year-old Shaquan Duley was interviewed throughout the evening, "we discovered some other issues that we had great concern (about)."
Williams told CBS he thought from the outset "we had a deceptive mother" and that investigators shared his "gut feeling" that something wasn't right. Williams said Monday the case had "a stench of foul play."
Duley currently faces charges of leaving the scene of an accident. Divers found the bodies of her two sons, ages 1 and 2, in her Chrysler sedan in the Edisto River near a boat landing after state troopers responded to a report of a car accident early Monday. The bodies were sent to the county coroner for autopsies.
Williams said Monday he couldn't confirm reports that the key was still in the car's ignition, but he said the car apparently was in neutral.
He added Duley didn't appear wet, saying, "She didn't have any evidence that she had been submerged in the water."
The car went off the boat ramp that is about 10 yards off the road's shoulder and sits at a 90-degree angle to the road.
Duley told authorities she was driving down the road and lost control of the vehicle where the boat ramp was, Williams told HLN's Nancy Grace. However, he added, "There's no evidence that she ran off the road at any time."
Duley walked nearly a mile before calling for help, telling authorities she flagged down a motorist to borrow a cell phone to summon help, Williams said. Police are trying to track down that individual.
But "she could have gone to a closer residence" to call authorities, Williams told CBS.
Ramona Milhouse told CNN she lives next to the boat landing, and her house and a neighbor's house are clearly visible from the road. She said she was at home around the time Duley told authorities she lost control of her car.
"I don't know why the young lady would walk that far when we are here, that's easy to see, and we have phones so we could have called someone for her," Milhouse said.
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