Mom Allegedly Admits Killing Twins, 2, With 'Bare Hands': Court

EAST HAMPTON, NY — A Medford woman charged with killing her 2-year-old twin daughters was held without bail Friday.

According to reports, Tenia Campbell, 24, was emotionally distraught when she called her mother from the car and told her that she'd killed her babies "with her bare hands" and wanted to join them in heaven.

A woman called 911 at 2:30 p.m. and told the operator her daughter was threatening to kill herself and her daughters, East Hampton Town Police said; the call led to a desperate search that ended in horrific tragedy.

Suffolk Police, assisted by New York State Police, Suffolk County park rangers, Southampton Town Police and East Hampton Town Police joined the massive effort to locate her. East Hampton officers located Campbell on the road at the entrance of the Montauk County Park Third House Nature Center, police said. The officers took Campbell into custody and attempted lifesaving efforts on her two children.

A Newsday report said Campbell had a history of mental illness and was overwhelmed with raising the twins and her older son. "“All Tenia would say was that it’s too late. I killed my babies and now I have to be with them,” the Newsday article reported that Vanessa McQueen, of Mastic Beach, said, according to the court records.

McQueen's statement added: "At one point she said she was going to find the ocean and walk into it and drown so she could be with my babies in Heaven," according to Pix 11. That report, and multiple others, said that the frantic mom allegedly said she had killed the toddlers with her "bare hands" before asking to die by police fire as she was found walking on the road near the Montauk park where her children were found, strapped into their car seats.

During a three-way call lasting nearly 12 minutes, Campbell, a home healthcare aid, was "at times hysterical" and would not reveal her location, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said at a news conference Friday, according to an ABC News report.

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According to Suffolk County Police, Jasmine and Jaida Campbell were found at the Montauk County Park Third House Nature Center on Montauk Highway Thursday at 4:05 p.m.

The children were taken by Montauk Ambulance to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital where they were pronounced dead. Police did not say how the twins died. The Suffolk County Medical Examiner will perform autopsies.

Campbell was brought into her arraignment at East Hampton Town Justice Court sobbing Friday, using her shirt to cover her face.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone spoke at a press conference Friday and said as a father of three young children, the twins' deaths were "incomprehensible. . .unimaginable and beyond tragic."

On social media, Campbell said a year ago that raising the girls caused stress. "In they (sic) first year they have manage to stress me out to maximum capacity and still make me extremely happy," she wrote on her Facebook page. "Such a blessing and a headache it is to have twins. I love you girls till the death of me."

Campbell, of Long Island Avenue in Medford, was taken to East Hampton Town Police headquarters and charged by Suffolk County Homicide Squad detectives with two counts of second degree murder.

She was held without bail at the Suffolk County Correctional Facility with her next court date scheduled for July 3.