Nightly News   |  April 14, 2011

Signs of trouble preceded Newburgh mother's suicide

Family members of Lashandra Armstrong, the mother of four who drove her family into the Hudson River, killing all but her oldest son, spoke out about the tragedy on Thursday. NBC's Mara Schiavocampo reports.

Share This:

This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> there are now details coming out in the awful story of the mother who drove a fan into the hudson river killing herself and 3 of her 4 children. there's a vigil in new york at the water's edge where the tragedy unfolded and there's a new report that the distraught mother posted a message on facebook just before taking the drive. quote, i'm so sorry. everyone forgive me please for what i'm going to do.

>> reporter: after losing so much, the family of lashandra armstrong is trying to make sense of the senseless and figure out why a stwoiv-year-old mother would kill herself and three of her young schichildren.

>> my sister was a great mother.

>> reporter: throw armstrong , a student and working mother of four was overwhelmed at times, her siblings said she was generally happy and cheerful, but her siblings said over the last few weeks she had become sad.

>> armstrong loaded all four of her children into a minivan before driving down a boat ramp into the hudson river , killing hirself, 5-year-old landonering 2-year-old lance, and 11-month-old li19a. their bodies discovered in eight feet of water, but the oldest child, 10-year-old lashaun survived. he swam through the water and flagged down a motorist.

>> he was waver skng he said, please help me, please help me.

>> earlier that evening, police got a call from armstrong 's family. police said the house has a history of domestic problems. but when they arrived, no one was home.

>> the son described the last moment.

>> she said, if i want to die, i'm going to stetake you.

>> reporter: those close to armstrong thought they could never do that thing.

>> he saw his driver going up and saying i made a mistake, i made a mistake.

>> a last-minute change of heart moments too late.