Mom who killed sons 'just wanted to be free'
Source: Agencies |
August 19, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
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BROKE, jobless and berated by her mother for her failings, Shaquan Duley killed her young sons, strapped their bodies into their car seats and rolled the vehicle into a South Carolina river in a desperate cover-up attempt, authorities said.
The 29-year-old mother was due to appear before an Orangeburg County judge yesterday for an arraignment hearing on two murder charges.
Investigators were not convinced when Duley said her sons drowned after her car plunged into a river. She ultimately confessed to killing the toddlers, they say - not by dumping them in the water but by suffocating them earlier with her own hands.
"She truly felt, 'If I don't have these toddlers, I can be free'," Orangeburg County Sheriff Larry Williams told reporters. "I think she was fed up with her mother telling her she couldn't take care of the children, or she wasn't taking care of the children and just wanted to be free."
Duley lived with her sons, a 5-year-old daughter and her mother in a rented home along a street filled with boarded-up, abandoned houses in Orangeburg, about 55 kilometers south of Columbia, South Carolina's capital. Out of work and estranged from the children's father, she relied on her mother to support her and her children, Williams said.
The sheriff said Duley told investigators her mother constantly harangued her about her failures as a mother and inability to provide for her family.
Leaving her daughter at the house after a night of arguing with her mother on Sunday, Duley strapped 2-year-old Devean and 18-month-old Ja'van into their car seats and drove the boys to an Orangeburg motel.
Late that night, Duley suffocated the boys with her hands, Williams said. She strapped the boys into their car seats and drove to a boat ramp some 16 kilometers away, investigators said. There she rolled her car into the water.
The 29-year-old mother was due to appear before an Orangeburg County judge yesterday for an arraignment hearing on two murder charges.
Investigators were not convinced when Duley said her sons drowned after her car plunged into a river. She ultimately confessed to killing the toddlers, they say - not by dumping them in the water but by suffocating them earlier with her own hands.
"She truly felt, 'If I don't have these toddlers, I can be free'," Orangeburg County Sheriff Larry Williams told reporters. "I think she was fed up with her mother telling her she couldn't take care of the children, or she wasn't taking care of the children and just wanted to be free."
Duley lived with her sons, a 5-year-old daughter and her mother in a rented home along a street filled with boarded-up, abandoned houses in Orangeburg, about 55 kilometers south of Columbia, South Carolina's capital. Out of work and estranged from the children's father, she relied on her mother to support her and her children, Williams said.
The sheriff said Duley told investigators her mother constantly harangued her about her failures as a mother and inability to provide for her family.
Leaving her daughter at the house after a night of arguing with her mother on Sunday, Duley strapped 2-year-old Devean and 18-month-old Ja'van into their car seats and drove the boys to an Orangeburg motel.
Late that night, Duley suffocated the boys with her hands, Williams said. She strapped the boys into their car seats and drove to a boat ramp some 16 kilometers away, investigators said. There she rolled her car into the water.
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