HUDSON OAKS, Texas — A 23-year-old woman and her four young daughters were found hanging in a closet in their mobile home Tuesday morning, all of them dead but an 8-month-old, who was taken to a hospital, the sheriff said.
The woman's sister forced her way into the locked trailer when she heard her sister hadn't shown up for work, Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said. She heard noises coming from a closet, apparently the sounds of the infant struggling in her noose, Fowler said.
The sister rescued the baby and found the bodies of the woman and three other children, ages 5, 3 and 2 years old, hanging from nooses made of sashes and strips of clothing. Fowler said.
"It's horrendous; that's all I can say," he said. "It's just something you don't want to see."
Authorities believe it was a murder-suicide because the trailer's doors were locked from the inside and a relative said the woman had been depressed.
Fowler declined to identify the woman and children until the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office does.
The infant was taken to Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, and was in good condition, Fowler said.
The woman and her girls were last seen alive Monday evening, Fowler said.
A co-worker of the woman worked called the woman's sister early Tuesday to say she hadn't shown up for work. The sister, who also lives in the trailer park about 25 miles west of Fort Worth went to check and found the bodies.
The woman was believed to be separated from her husband, who has been notified of the deaths, Fowler said.
Residents were stunned by the deaths at the run-down trailer park, which is located just off Interstate 20 in this rural town of about 1,600. Paint is peeling off many of the trailers and items are strewn about the yards.
"I just got a big kick out of watching the kids play over there on her porch, and today it's sad, very sad," neighbor Joyce Harris said.
The slayings came nearly five years after another woman in Hudson Oaks killed her three children. On July 16, 2002, Dee Etta Perez, 39, shot her 4-year-old daughter and sons, ages 9 and 10, before killing herself.
Texas has seen a disturbing number of child killings by mothers in recent years.
Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the family's Houston bathtub in 2001. In 2003, Deanna Laney beat her two young sons to death with stones in East Texas, and Lisa Ann Diaz drowned her daughters in a Plano bathtub. Dena Schlosser fatally severed her 10-month-old daughter's arms with a kitchen knife in 2004.
All four of those women were found innocent by reason of insanity. Yates initially was convicted of capital murder, but that was overturned on appeal.
The woman's sister forced her way into the locked trailer when she heard her sister hadn't shown up for work, Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said. She heard noises coming from a closet, apparently the sounds of the infant struggling in her noose, Fowler said.
The sister rescued the baby and found the bodies of the woman and three other children, ages 5, 3 and 2 years old, hanging from nooses made of sashes and strips of clothing. Fowler said.
"It's horrendous; that's all I can say," he said. "It's just something you don't want to see."
Authorities believe it was a murder-suicide because the trailer's doors were locked from the inside and a relative said the woman had been depressed.
Fowler declined to identify the woman and children until the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office does.
The infant was taken to Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, and was in good condition, Fowler said.
The woman and her girls were last seen alive Monday evening, Fowler said.
A co-worker of the woman worked called the woman's sister early Tuesday to say she hadn't shown up for work. The sister, who also lives in the trailer park about 25 miles west of Fort Worth went to check and found the bodies.
The woman was believed to be separated from her husband, who has been notified of the deaths, Fowler said.
Residents were stunned by the deaths at the run-down trailer park, which is located just off Interstate 20 in this rural town of about 1,600. Paint is peeling off many of the trailers and items are strewn about the yards.
"I just got a big kick out of watching the kids play over there on her porch, and today it's sad, very sad," neighbor Joyce Harris said.
The slayings came nearly five years after another woman in Hudson Oaks killed her three children. On July 16, 2002, Dee Etta Perez, 39, shot her 4-year-old daughter and sons, ages 9 and 10, before killing herself.
Texas has seen a disturbing number of child killings by mothers in recent years.
Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the family's Houston bathtub in 2001. In 2003, Deanna Laney beat her two young sons to death with stones in East Texas, and Lisa Ann Diaz drowned her daughters in a Plano bathtub. Dena Schlosser fatally severed her 10-month-old daughter's arms with a kitchen knife in 2004.
All four of those women were found innocent by reason of insanity. Yates initially was convicted of capital murder, but that was overturned on appeal.
