A Bronx woman whose twin children were smothered to death in their family’s apartment in December has been charged with their murders, the police said on Thursday.
The woman, Gloria Asamoah, called 911 on Dec. 18 to report that she had found her children, a boy and a girl, both 5 years old, stiff and cold in their East 175th Street apartment. They had both been ill and she had kept them out of school on the day they died.
At first, it appeared the children might have died from their illnesses — there were no signs of abuse on their bodies and no weapons or drugs in the apartment, the police said. But in March, the medical examiner found that the twins had been smothered and ruled their deaths homicides.
Ms. Asamoah was taken to a nearby hospital soon after the children died and was recently hospitalized again, the police said. She was discharged on Thursday, arrested and charged with murder and manslaughter in both deaths, the police said.
Both children had special needs, Joseph Kenny, the chief of detectives for the Police Department, told reporters in December. He added that the boy had been sent home on Nov. 30 after vomiting at school and had cold symptoms two weeks later, while the girl had an ear infection and had been acting out, biting and spitting at school.
The children’s father, a health aide, worked overnight and was not home when they died. Ms. Asamoah told officers at the scene that she had slept with the children in her bed and last saw them alive at 5 a.m. before waking up at 11:20 a.m. and finding them unconscious. When emergency workers arrived, the children were foaming at the mouth, and they were pronounced dead 10 minutes later, Chief Kenny said.
Neighbors reported waking up that day to Ms. Asamoah’s screams. As the police inspected the apartment, she sat on the stairs in the hallway, sobbing.
There were no previous reports of child abuse or domestic violence in the home, Assistant Chief Benjamin Gurley, the commanding officer of the Bronx patrol borough, said at a news conference in December.
Chelsia Rose Marcius contributed reporting.
