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Mother Who Killed Her 2 Children Was In Custody Dispute [UPDATED]
Marilyn Edge (Photo courtesy of Santa Ana PD)
Marilyn Edge, the Arizona woman who allegedly killed her two children the day before she was due to hand them over to her ex-husband, NBC 4 reports.Marian Weeks, the attorney for Edge's ex-husband, Mark, told NBC 4 that Marilyn Edge had lost custody of her children on Wednesday after a judge ruled "extreme parental alienation." She had been in a custody dispute with her husband since they divorced in 2007.
When Mark Edge heard the news about the deaths on Sunday he had to be hospitalized, Weeks said.
"He could not talk to me on the phone at all," Weeks said. "It's tragic. It's just tragic … Never in our minds did we imagine that she'd murder them."
Edge is being held in two murder charges in connection with killing her son, Jaelen, 13, and daughter, Faith, 10, officials said. Jaelen, according to court documents, was "on the autism spectrum."
After attempting to kill herself by crashing her car into an electrical box, Edge informed police where they could find the bodies of her children; in the hotel room of a nearby Hampton Inn.
Police are still not sure why she was in Southern California. They have not yet revealed how the children were killed.
According to City News Service, Edge may recently have lived in San Jose. Her car had Georgia license plates.
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UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 17, 10:12 A.M., Authorities have revealed that the children were poisoned, according to CBS.
Marilyn Edge could be eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
She and her husband divorced in 2007 and in 2009, she was given full custody of the children while he was in Afghanistan. In September, a judge ruled for shared custody since Mark Edge had not seen his children for a year and a half. He was granted full custody after a Georgia judge determined Marilyn had deliberately alienated the children. That's when Marilyn went on the run, killing the children and trying to kill herself.
Related:
Mother Killed Two Children, Then Tried To Kill Herself [UPDATED]
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