Mom Kills Two Kids, Botches Suicide

"BRONX, NY — Officers answering a call about a gas leak in a Bronx apartment building found a 5-year-old boy and his 4-month-old sister unconscious in an apartment that had dangerous levels of gas after the children’s mother apparently turned on the oven and then cut her wrists, the police said Friday.

"Officers responding on Thursday night found the two children and their mother, Lisette Bamenga, 29, who was conscious when they arrived, in the kitchen, where a stove burner was on but unlighted. Emergency medical workers were unable to revive the children: the boy, Trevor Noel Jr., died at the scene, and his sister, Lillian Noel, was pronounced dead at Jacobi Medical Center.

"It was unclear whether the children had succumbed to gas asphyxiation—lack of oxygen—or died from a lethal dose of some kind of poison, a police official said.

"Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office, said that autopsies on the children did not reveal the cause of death and that further tests would be conducted.

"No one had been charged in the deaths as of Friday afternoon.

"Investigators said Ms. Bamenga had inflicted minor cuts to her wrists in a suicide attempt, and was listed in stable condition at Jacobi."

From The New York Times...