LA Mother Arrested On Suspicion Of Murdering Her 3 Young Children

EAST LOS ANGELES, CA — Police arrested a 28-year-old mother in connection with the deaths of her three young children in East Los Angeles Monday.

Authorities on Tuesday announced the arrest of Sandra Chico on suspicion of murder. Chico is being held on $2 million bail, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Authorities responding to a report of two children who weren't breathing arrived at the 600 block of Ferris Avenue in the Belvedere Gardens area Monday to find three dead children under three years old.

Deputies found two boys and a girl in the home and none were breathing, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Lt. Charles Calderaro. Paramedics were called, but all three children were pronounced dead at the scene. Relatives told reporters one of the boys was 6 months old. There was no immediate word on how the children died. At least one other relative was in the house at the time police arrived, and that person is the one who called the authorities.

"Based on their preliminary investigation, detectives have arrested their biological mother Sandra Chico for the three murders," sheriff's Deputy Trina Schrader said in a statement Tuesday morning.

Calderaro said it was too early in the investigation to speculate on a motive for the children's deaths. The children bore no obvious signs of trauma, he added. Preliminary information revealed no prior reports of abuse or child neglect to the home or the mother, according to Deputy Eric Ortiz of the Sheriff's Information Bureau.

Chico was scheduled to appear in court at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on Wednesday, Schrader said.

Anyone with information was asked to call the sheriff's Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Anonymous tips can be called in to Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or submitted online at lacrimestoppers.org.

The jarring murders come less than three months after another Los Angeles mother was arrested on suspicion of murdering her three young children, including a 6-month-old baby. Relatives, in that case, said the mother Liliana Carrillo suffered extreme postpartum depression.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.