Mother charged with capital murder after 5-year-old boy and 7-year-old girl found dead in burning car, police say

A Texas pistillate is down bars aft 2 young children, believed to beryllium 5 and 7 years old, were recovered dormant wrong a burned-out vehicle.

Marlene Vidal, 34, stands accused of 2 counts of capital murder of a idiosyncratic nether 10 years of property and 1 number of arson, according to the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.

The underlying incidental occurred during the aboriginal greeting hours successful a warehouse parking batch connected Richland Hills Drive successful San Antonio.

Sometime aft 5 a.m. connected Friday, a witnesser who was retired walking their canine called 911 to study the car ablaze – aft making interaction with a pistillate determination who claimed she had already called authorities, the San Antonio Police Department announced during a press conference.

Officers and firefighters arrived connected the country and extinguished the burning achromatic Hyundai, constabulary said. Inside the car, investigators recovered the victims and are presently moving to place them.

Vidal was rapidly identified and arrested, according to police. The suspect is said to hail from Edinburg – a ample metropolis successful the Rio Grande Valley located immoderate 230 miles owed southbound of the Alamo City. Police said she has "family connections" successful the San Antonio area.

"At this signifier of the investigation, we person statements made by the suspect, on with surveillance video and grounds from the country that bespeak she was solely liable for the decease of these 2 children," Assistant San Antonio Police Chief Jesus Salame Jr. said.

The defendant, however, was not instantly booked into the Bexar County Jail aft her arrest, Law&Crime has learned. Vidal was yet booked and processed by jailhouse officials precocious Friday evening.

"She conscionable indicated that she was the 1 that we would beryllium looking for," Salame added, describing comments Vidal allegedly made to police.

Law enforcement further described the 7-year-old unfortunate arsenic a miss and the 5-year-old unfortunate arsenic a lad who is said to beryllium some autistic and nonverbal, according to San Antonio-based NBC affiliate WOAI.

The TV presumption spoke with the children's begetter who nary longer lives with Vidal. He said helium was devastated by the quality of their deaths and confirmed the small lad had an autism diagnosis.

A motive for the slayings is, arsenic of yet, elusive. Law enforcement person said intelligence wellness issues "may person played a role."

"So what I'll perpetrate to you present is that we're going to proceed moving to find the truth, question justness for these children, and enactment everyone affected by this tragedy," Salame said. "Everyone's going to privation to cognize wherefore thing similar this happened, and unfortunately, the wherefore is sometimes the hardest question to answer."

The probe is ongoing arsenic constabulary talk with household members "and others connected to the case," constabulary said.

The suspect was arraigned connected Friday nighttime and appeared earlier a judge. When her execution charges were work out, Vidal audibly broke into tears and asked erstwhile her proceedings would start, WOAI reported.