SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY – A young mother from Long Island confessed to murdering her toddler twin girls by suffocation in June 2019, according to law enforcement officials. Tenia Campbell, 28, from Medford, New York, admitted to two counts of first-degree murder in a Suffolk County state court on Monday, stated Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney. Campbell is likely to face a prison sentence of 20 years in the upcoming month, officials noted.
The tragic incident unfolded on June 27, 2019. The troubled mother, gripped by suicidal thoughts, was driving with the twins towards the easternmost part of the island. They stopped under a tree at the entrance to Montauk County Park Third House Nature Center, Tierney’s office reported.
Worried about the safety of the twins—Jasmine and Jaida Campbell—Campbell’s mother dialed 911. She alarmed by her daughter’s threats of killing them as well as herself. Officers from local and state police, park rangers, and the Coast Guard came together to form a massive search party. While on the call with authorities, Campbell refused to reveal her whereabouts. Her cellphone signals assisted in tracing her location.
Approximately 80 minutes after Campbell’s mother’s initial call, East Hampton Town police officers located the minivan and confirmed Campbell’s association with it. Campbell reportedly stepped out of the minivan, approached a nearby roadway and demanded responding offices to “shoot me,” as per police details.
An official walked over to the minivan and discovered Campbell’s 2-year-old twin girls, lifeless in their car seats, the Suffolk County office reported in a statement released on Monday. “Campbell later confessed to smothering the girls to death,” the statement added.
First responders contemplated the girls were in cardiac arrest when they arrived on the scene. They were immediately taken to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital where the doctors declared them dead, the office reported.