Photo: Pinal County Sheriff’s Office; GoFundMe
An Arizona woman pleaded guilty this week to second-degree murder and child abuse in connection with the deaths of her two children who were found dead in a car while strapped into their car seats.
Brittany Velasquez, 22, accepted a plea agreement with prosecutors a month before her scheduled mid-December trial.
Velasquez is set to be sentenced Feb. 10.
Velasquez’s son, 2, and her 10-month-old daughter were found dead March 26, 2018, in a car outside their Superior, Arizona, home. The coroner’s office ruled the children died from exposure.
In a statement to PEOPLE, the DCS confirmed that they received two reports of alleged neglect but found no evidence of abuse. The first call came in October 2016, when the department received a report alleging that Velasquez would leave her son home with her mother for long periods of time.
“The child was seen on multiple occasions during the investigation. The DCS investigator concluded there were no indications the child was being abused or neglected and there were no legal grounds to remove the child,” the statement says.
The case was eventually closed after local authorities visited the children’s grandmother’s home and found no evidence a child had been harmed.
GoFundMe
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up forPEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletterfor breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
On Jan. 5, a second neglect report was called into DCS alleging Velasquez had left her two children with her mother again. Through their investigation, DCS learned that while Velasquez worked, her mother took care of the children at her home.
DCS searched Velasquez’s apartment, enrolled her in a home visitation program, signed the children up for daycare at no extra cost and determined that there were no signs of abuse or neglect, according to the statement.
Family members previously told local media Velasquez was mentally unstable.
In an interview with FOX10, Velasquez’s brother, Vincent, alleged his sister had been suffering from mental illness since she was young. Calling her “deranged,” Vincent told the station she allegedly refused to get help.
“We tried,” Vincent told FOX10. “We begged CPS to take the kids. We begged the cops. Nothing would happen. Only thing we can do. We can’t kidnap the kids. My grandparents let them stay in the house. Other than that, that’s all we can do, know they are in a home, being fed.”
source: people.com
