Mother killed her three children then commits suicide due to financial problems

Miami
September 9, 2008
Story 1: Mother killed her three children then commits suicide due to financial problems

A mother has killed her three children then later commits suicide because of their poor status in life, police said.

The incident occurred inside the house of Ponce family at Barangay Saladsad, Magdalena town in Laguna at around 1:00 am of September 9, but the incident only reported to the police at 3:15 am of the same date.

Sr. Inspector Raul Sandoval, Chief of Police of Magdalena Police Station identified the victims as Marjorie Ponce, 4 (girl), Margareth Ponce, 3 (girl), and MJ Ponce, (boy). Their mother who also commits suicide was Janet Ponce, 32, jobless.

Sandoval said that the mother poisoned her children by forcing them to take one tablespoon of muriatic acid or a toilet bowl cleaner for each of her children who were sleeping at that moment.

“It was Gina, the sister of Janet who reported the incident to us, according to her, at around 1:15 am she heard her sister crying, but she did not bother because she is aware of the financial problem of her sister because she is also experiencing it,” Sandoval said in a phone interview.

Gina also told to the police that her sister was drunk also before doing the incident that is why she really know that her sister still thinking of their finances.

The husband of Janet was in Manila and working as construction worker, his income is not enough to sustain the needs of their family.

He described that Gina and Janet is living in one house but divided it into two with the use of plywood as their divider.

“We recover the bottle of the muriatic acid which is about 500 ml. The content is already small in amount because they also usually use this to clean their bathroom,” Sandoval added.

The police also recovered small suicide note of Janet, it states their that she is already tired of her life, she even asked her sister to take good care of her children.

Gina learned of the incident at around 3:00 am when she finally went to the room of Janet and her children. “Gina noticed something different from her sister and noticed that the children are stiff already,” Sandoval said. Gina went to the room to ask Janet what food they will cook for breakfast.

The children and Janet were rushed to Laguna Provincial Hospital but the three were declared dead on arrival, then Janet died at around 4:00 am.