A New Orleans mother stands accused of killing her four-year-old daughter and attacking her two-year-old son after she posted a short video on Instagram in which she had blood dripping down her chest.
Janee Pedescleaux, 31, was taken into custody on Sunday on charges of second-degree murder, attempted murder, and second-degree cruelty to a juvenile, according to the New Orleans Police Department.
Ms Pedescleaux allegedly stabbed her daughter to death and tried to do the same to her son, according to NOLA.
Police arrived at the home in the Florida area of New Orleans in Louisiana after 11am on Sunday. At that time, the children had already been taken to a hospital in a private vehicle.
On Sunday afternoon, the boy was in critical condition. The daughter, named by family friends as Paris Roberts, died at the hospital.
NOLA reported that investigators think that Ms Pedescleaux is the woman in a video shared on the social media platform earlier that same day.
The video has been deleted. In the footage, Ms Pedescleaux looks at the camera wearing a bonnet and a blood-stained tank top.
“I’m done,” she says in the video, appearing to be emotional. “My children are dead. I’m done. I’m done with life.”
“It’s all Jermaine’s fault,” she said, according to WWL.
Legal filings reveal that Ms Pedescleaux and the children’s father, Jermaine Roberts, were engaged in a custody battle.
Mr Roberts sued Ms Pedescleaux in Orleans Parish court in April. He was seeking joint custody so that he would be allowed to see the kids on the weekend.
He said in legal filings that Ms Pedescleaux wasn’t allowing him to see the kids, adding that she was “not stable or providing a healthy environment for the kids”, according to NOLA.
A hearing was scheduled to take place later in August.
