Mother says she killed 3 kids found in Phoenix home: police

PHOENIX — A Phoenix woman has been arrested on suspicion of killing her three children, who were found dead inside the family’s home, authorities said Tuesday.

The 22-year-old mother, Rachel Henry, “has admitted to harming her three children, which caused their demise,” police Sgt. Mercedes Fortune told reporters outside the home on a block with an old mobile home, several weathered wooden houses and other buildings in a once rural area of southern Phoenix.

Police said there was no obvious trauma to the 7-month-old girl, 2-year-old girl and 3-year-old boy and that it’s too early to determine how the children died. Relatives initially believed illness may have been a factor.

“We are comfortable in saying now that the mother is responsible for the death of the children,” Fortune said.

A relative who lives at the house called police late Monday, and officers found the children in a living room, authorities said.

Officers administered CPR and fire officials provided first aid, but the children were pronounced dead.

Police were interviewing the 30-year-old father and a 49-year-old relative who lives in the home, authorities said. The family had recently moved to the area from Oklahoma.

Henry has been booked into jail on three counts of first-degree murder, police said. There was no information on whether she had an attorney who could speak on her behalf.

The family lives in a neighborhood with old homes of wood or stucco, where a white Spanish-style church graces a corner. But there is new construction going up all around, with a golf course and several housing developments of single-family homes priced at more than $500,000.