US authorities have arrested and charged a 35-year-old Indian-origin woman in New Jersey in connection with the deaths of her two young children.
Investigations revealed that Priyatharsini Natarajan, a resident of Hillsborough, New Jersey, allegedly caused the deaths of her two children on Tuesday.
Somerset County Prosecutor John McDonald said in a statement on Wednesday that on January 13 at approximately 6.45 pm, an individual believed to be the children’s father placed a 911 call to law enforcement.
According to the statement, the caller reported that after returning home from work, he found his two sons, aged five and seven, unconscious and said that “his wife did something to them.” Police officers who responded to the call found the male caller at the residence along with his wife, identified as Natarajan.
Officers located the two children, both deceased, inside a bedroom of the home. Responding officers and medical personnel attempted life-saving measures, but these efforts were unsuccessful.
The children were pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities have not released their identities pending positive identification by the Medical Examiner’s Office.
Natarajan was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.
She was detained by Hillsborough police officers and transported to the Somerset County Jail, where she remains pending a detention hearing.
McDonald said the case is being investigated by detectives from the Hillsborough Township Police Department, along with the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit, the Crime Scene Investigation Unit, and medical investigators from the New Jersey Northern Regional Medical Examiner’s Office.
“A postmortem examination is scheduled to be performed by the Northern Regional Medical Examiner’s Office to positively identify the victims and determine the cause and manner of death,” the statement said.