Chicago Mother Allegedly Slays Grandfather and Two Children in Murder-Suicide Attempt

An unidentified Chicago woman is in critical condition following the deaths of her grandfather and two young children.

At 1:50 a.m. Thursday, police were called to the 7200 block of S. South Shore Drive in Chicago; the scene of a disturbing crime. The woman, still unnamed by the authorities at the time of this writing, left a deceased two-year-old in her bathtub before stabbing her 70-year-old grandfather in the face and body.

She then took her one-year-old son, threw him out the 11th story apartment window, and leapt out after him. “Based on the positioning of the bodies and available evidence … it appears as though the baby was thrown out of the window and the woman followed,” Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. “We’re assuming something broke her fall because she survived, which is unusual after falling from that distance.”

While originally reported that the stabbing victim was her father, Guglielmi said that the police currently believe it to be her grandfather. They are also operating under the assumption that both children are hers, though the identity of the two-year-old has yet to be officially confirmed.

Guglielmi said the two-year-old also suffered apparent physical trauma before their death. “The child in the bathtub appeared to be scalded from the water and he had some lacerations on his head,” he noted. According to his statement, it remains “unclear if the other baby was also stabbed because of the trauma from the impact of the fall,” or whether it was the fall that killed him.

Even the law enforcement officers have been traumatized by the horror of the crime scene. “From what was described to me, it’s just been a very difficult scene for detectives having to see children like this. It’s hard for anybody — including cops and detectives — they’re mothers and fathers, too,” Guglielmi said. “For anybody to have to see a child lifeless in a bathtub is exceptionally difficult,” he added. All responding members of the force are being offered counseling.

Both children were pronounced dead at Comer Children’s Hospital, where their bodies were transported. The woman and her grandfather remain in critical condition at University of Chicago Medical Center.