A woman accused of strangling her four young children was charged with murder Wednesday, a day after hundreds of people attended the youngsters’ funeral.
County Prosecutor Curtis Hill said he was considering seeking the death penalty against the mother, Angelica Alvarez.
Alvarez, 27, was found unconscious with a faint pulse Nov. 14 in her Elkhart home next to the bodies of the children: Jennifer Lopez, 8, Gonzalo Lopez, 6, Daniel Valdez, 4, and Jessica Valdez, 2.
All the children had been strangled, Hill said. He didn’t know if investigators had determined a motive and wouldn’t disclose Alvarez’ injuries, but he said he would not describe the case as a murder-suicide attempt.
Gonzalo Lopez, father of the two oldest children, has said Alvarez was depressed after losing her job and had been hospitalized for several days. Officials at Norco Industries, where Alvarez had worked as a housekeeper for three years, said she quit in mid-September.
Alvarez will likely will make her initial court appearance Nov. 30. Hill did not believe she had an attorney Wednesday.
Lopez told the South Bend Tribune that he met Alvarez in Mexico and they moved to Indiana about a decade ago.