Mental disorders on all levels are a curse if not given proper attention and treatment since their inception. The more you deny the symptoms, the more room you leave for its spurt. Mental disorders lead patients to cross the threshold of morality and enter into a criminal’s mind. The worst part? They are unphased about the people they hurt around them.
After four years, Long Island, N.Y., mother has pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, as per People, after she suffocated her 2-year-old twin daughters. According to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, Tenia Campbell pleaded guilty to murdering her two children on Wednesday. According to the report, she is expected to be sentenced to 20 years in prison.
According to People’s previous report, Campbell was arrested in 2019 by police in Suffolk County, where they found the mother and daughters Jasmine and Jaida parked in her minivan. She was caught after the authorities received a call from Campbell’s mother reporting that her daughter was threatening to kill her granddaughters. The toddlers were found unresponsive in cardiac arrest and were pronounced dead shortly after at a nearby hospital.
District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said in a release, “This is such a sad and tragic case. Those two little girls looked to this defendant, their mother, for protection and love. Instead, she executed them,” adding, “The defendant has one thing those twin girls will never have again: life,” he added. “But now, this defendant will get to live out the majority of her life behind bars.”
As for Campbell, her attorney said that Campbell “wanted to put this behind her” and “lives it every day of what her actions were and what she’s done,” continuing, “There was some closure to this,” adding, “Part of her is now able to move forward.”
According to the DA office notes acquired by People, on June 27, 2019, Campbell’s mother called the police at 2:37 p.m. to report that her daughter was threatening to kill her babies and then cause self-harm and end her own life. Now-former Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said in 2019 that Campbell was going through frequent bouts of hysteria where she denied revealing her location and said that she had already killed the twins.
At the entrance of Montauk County Park in Montauk, CBS News reported that authorities found Campbell’s parked minivan at around 4 p.m., which was located by tracking her phone. Hart, at the time, said that Campbell was daring the officers to shoot her as they approached her vehicle.
CBS News also reported that Campbell claimed she killed the children “with my bare hands” and that she was “driving to a beach” to “find the ocean and walk into it so she could be with her babies in heaven.” Further revelation from Campbell’s grandmother showed that she had a history of mental disorder, depression, bipolar, and anxiety and that she was “acting very irrational and angry.” At the time of her arrest in 2019, it was reported that Campbell’s 4-year-old son was in the custody of his father.
A sentencing conference will be held on January 25th on Campbell’s murder charges.
Disclaimer: If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, texting “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741741, or going to 988lifeline.org.