A New York mother was arrested on Friday by Queens police for stabbing her six-week-old twins to death in her apartment a month after their arrival was greeted with joy by family members family members.
Danezja Kilpatrick, 23, allegedly killed her son, Dakota, who was found with a knife sticking out of his head, and her daughter Dallas.
Cousin Requested Wellness Check After Mother Gave Evasive Answers
The infants were discovered at about 3:10 p.m. during a police wellness check at her apartment in Woodside, Queens. The wellness check was requested by cousin Keywona Llanos, an NYPD housing officer, who became concerned when Kilpatrick gave them evasive answers when asked about the babies and where they were.
When police arrived, Kilpatrick was home and appeared agitated. Police first found the boy, Dakota, inside a bedroom crib with the blade still inside his skull. When asked about the second child, Kilpatrick indicated that the girl, Dallas, was under the sink, which is where police found her wrapped in a pink blanket and stuffed in a plastic bag, unconscious and unresponsive. Both babies were pronounced dead on scene by EMS.
"I do not want them," she reportedly told arriving officers, according to the New York Daily News. "I can't take it anymore."
Kilpatrick has been charged with two counts of murder, two counts of acting in a manner injurious to a child and one count of criminal possession of a weapon.
Sister's Congratulatory Post on Facebook
A month-and-a-half before the incident, on March 8, Kilpatrick's sister, Quanteya Kilpatrick, congratulated her sister on the arrival of the twins on Facebook. "Huge congratulations to my Sister Danezja on her newborn twins Dallas and Dakota Kilpatrick. I'm so happy for her," she wrote.
Quanteya also shared a selfie of herself and the newborn babies along with an annotation that read, "I'll love you forever" and a fingers crossed emoji.
Quanteya Says Danezja Blocked Her, Told Her Babies Were with the Father
While Quanteya told the New York Daily News that she never though Danezja would harm the kids, she recalled her sister acting odd on the day of the killings. After Danezja blocked her calls, the elder sibling went to her Queens apartment, where Danezja locked her out.
"As soon as I walked in I knew something was off," recalled the 39-year-old Quanteya. "Something was giving me bad vibes ... There were no baby clothes, no baby bottles. She told me the babies were with their father."
"She loved them," the murder suspect's distraught sister Quanteya Kilpatrick told the Daily News Friday. "She never gave me a feeling that she didn't. She always suffered from (mental illness) but I never saw her struggle with it while the babies were there."
Quanteya Kilpatrick remembered cuddling her niece and nephew during her frequent visits to the home as she struggled to come to terms with her sister's arrest and the shocking loss of the newborn babies. "I just don't know what happened," she said. "I loved them so much. They were the best. I would have done anything for them."
