A grieving mother despondent over her son's suicide killed herself and her two daughters Tuesday in the home where her other son had taken his own life, authorities said.
Angela Mtambu, 45, and her daughters Eudora Thurston, 6, and Callidora Thurston, 9, were found dead with a 30-gallon garbage bag filled with nitrogen gas over their heads in a locked room inside her East Greenbush home at 1:45 a.m., East Greenbush Police Chief Christopher Lavin said.
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Relatives in Texas, where Mtambu and the children had been living, called police on June 1 and said Mtambu had told them she “wanted to join her son in death,” Lavin said.
An Amber Alert was issued and authorities in Harrisburg, Pa., took Mtambu into custody on June 2. She was held in a mental institution for evaluation for 20 days before being released June 22 and eventually reunited with her children.
Social workers in New York had been in contact with the family, but officials with the Rensselaer County Social Services Department were not immediately available for comment to NBC News.
Mtambu’s 23-year-old son, Mitchell Gwatida, killed himself in a similar manner in the home on April 1, police said.
IN-DEPTH
- Police: Warning Signs Existed Before East Greenbush Murder-Suicide (WNYT)
- 2 Children, 1 Adult Dead in East Greebush Home (Albany Times-Union)