NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A Bronx mother was charged on Thursday with murder and manslaughter after an autopsy report found that her 5-year-old twins were choked to death in December, according to police.
On Dec. 18, Gloria Asamoah, 42, called 911, reporting that she discovered her children cold and unresponsive at their home on East 175th Street in Morris Heights. Asamoah said she had been sleeping with the children, last seeing them alive at 5 a.m. She woke up around 11:20 a.m. to find them unconscious.
Upon arrival, police found George Kantanka and Gianna Kantanka, both 5, unconscious and unresponsive in the apartment. Medics pronounced both the children dead at the scene.
After multiple interviews, police initially believed the twins died from illness.
However, an autopsy conducted in March revealed that the twins had been choked to death, and their deaths were ruled homicides by the medical examiner.
Joseph Kenny, chief of detectives for the NYPD, stated during a press conference on Tuesday, that at the time of the incident, the mother was so distressed that she was taken to a psychiatric ward and was not free to leave.
She was discharged on Thursday, then arrested and charged with murder and manslaughter in the death of her twins, according to police.
Kenny noted that both children were autistic. The children had been sent home for being ill in late November; George had been vomiting at school and showed signs of cold symptoms, while Gianna had an ear infection.
The twins' father, a health aide, was working overnight the day they died and was not at home. He will not be charged in their deaths, police said.
Asamoah is expected to be arraigned on the indictment after being medically cleared.
