Overnight between July 3 and July 4, Missouri mom Jenna Boedecker loaded her two children into her Jeep Patriot and fell asleep.
The mother didn’t want her girls, 2-year-old Ireland Ribando and 7-week-old Goodknight Ribando, to hear her and her husband fight, according to WGNO.
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She told investigators that the car didn’t have much gas in the tank. And when she awoke on July 4, her two children were unresponsive.
As Dearly previously reported, Boedecker rushed the children to a neighbor’s house and called 911. The girls were pronounced dead at the scene.
Now, Boedecker is facing murder charges in their deaths.
Police have not confirmed the children’s cause of death, but Boedecker has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder and four counts of child endangerment relating to her daughters.
She also faces charges stemming from a fight with her husband earlier in the night.
Boedecker allegedly threw a brick at her husband and rammed her Jeep into his vehicle, leading to charges of armed criminal action and first-degree property damage.
According to WGNO, a child services investigator responding to a tip visited the home the morning of July 4 and saw the car running.
He didn’t see the mother or children inside the car because they were slumped over. The investigator knocked on the door of the home but didn’t get a response, so he left.
Boedecker was not immediately named as a suspect in the deaths after the incident. Clay County Deputy Jon Bazzano said at the time:
“The only thing I’m comfortable saying is she’s charged with assault. And it’s too early for me to put labels on something when we’re trying to determine exactly what happened.”
A GoFundMe campaign was started after the incident to help the children’s family pay for the children’s funeral expense. It has raised over $11,000.
The mom is currently being held in Clay County Jail on $500,000 bail.
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