A Philadelphia-area woman accused of shooting her two children in their heads was charged with murder Monday after the boys died, authorities said.
The boys, who had been on life support since Trinh Nguyen is alleged to have shot them in bed May 2, died Friday at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, the Bucks County District Attorney's Office said in a news release.
“I have been praying for these boys and their surviving family for days,” District Attorney Matt Weintraub said in a statement. “I am so sad to hear of their passing. This defendant’s murder of two of her sons is unconscionable and horrific."
Nguyen, 38, planned the killing at least a week in advance and left a handwritten will with instructions about what to do with her ashes and the remains of her sons, ages 9 and 13, authorities alleged in court documents filed Monday in Bucks County criminal court.
The probable cause affidavit says that when Nguyen was apprehended at a church parking lot in a Philadelphia suburb hours after the shooting, authorities found a note in her Toyota minivan that said: “Please call 911! My children are dead in their bed.”
Investigators also found ammunition for a .38 revolver and what they believed were several empty and full packages of heroin, the affidavit says.
Nguyen, who is also accused of trying to shoot her neighbor in the head, was arraigned Monday on two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted homicide and other crimes, the prosecutor’s office said. She was being held without bail.
According to documents obtained by NBC Philadelphia, Nguyen owed more than $11,000 in unpaid rent to her former sister-in-law and had been in a custody dispute with the father of her younger son.
After the couple separated last year, she accused him of failing to comply with the terms of their custody agreement, according to the documents. He accused her of kidnapping their child and said he feared she would flee to Vietnam after a divorce payout.
Nguyen was scheduled to be evicted from her home in Upper Makefield on May 3, the day after the shooting.
Court records didn't list a lawyer who could speak on behalf of Nguyen.