Police: Mother killed young son and daughter

GERT TOWN, LA (WDSU) — A 23-year-old New Orleans woman was charged with two counts of first-degree murder hours after investigators found her two young children dead in a Gert Town apartment on Wednesday.

Chelsea Thornton was being held at Orleans Parish Prison. New Orleans police said she admitted in a recorded interview to shooting her 3-year-old son and drowning her 4-year-old daughter in a bathtub Wednesday afternoon.

Investigators said she then left the home, in the 3300 block of Audubon Court, and took a bus to a hospital because she was suffering from stomach pains and a headache.

The children's grandmother found the lifeless bodies of the toddlers about 5:30 p.m. and called for help. No one else was at the home, officials said.

One investigator could only describe it as a "terrible, terrible tragedy."

The investigation into the killings is ongoing.