Mother kills children for 'religious purposes,' she told Lakewood police
LAKEWOOD - Naomi Elkins, the mother accused of killing her two young children at their home here late Tuesday afternoon, told police she believed she needed to kill her children for religious purposes after her shift at a daycare earlier that day.
On Tuesday, Elkins contacted Hatzolah Medical Services and told them that she had hurt her children, ages 1 and 3, according to police documents. When they arrived at the scene — an apartment located in the basement of a two-family house — they found Elkins and her two children. They attempted CPR on the children but were unsuccessful.
They were pronounced dead at 5:06 p.m. and 5:12 p.m, according to police.
When medical personnel found them, the children were wet and not wearing any clothes, according to the documents. One child also had a stab wound to her stomach and back.
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Police found a serrated knife in the bathroom sink and both bathtubs in the residence were full of water, the documents said.
The owner of the home and his children were upstairs in the main part of the residence, according to police documents. He told police that he rents the basement unit to Elkins and her husband, 26-year-old Edward Wiseman.
According to police documents, Elkins provided a statement upon her arrest where she told police that on May 24, her husband left for a business trip to Virginia and she went to work at Giggl Daycare in Lakewood. Her children also attended the daycare while she was working.
The daycare declined to comment Thursday afternoon.
She told police that after work that day, she came home and had "concerning thoughts," and spent the night praying. She followed this same routine on Tuesday.
When she got home Tuesday with the children, she believed that she needed to kill them for "religious purposes," police said.
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Elkins told police that she stabbed one of her children and then went to the bathroom and ran a bath, the documents said. She then brought the child in and held her under the water for two to three minutes, when her other child ran in screaming because she was scared.
Then, Elkins ran the second bathtub and held her other child under water for several minutes, "counting to 50 multiple times to ensure she held them underwater for enough time," according to police.
Afterwards, Elkins told police she realized she had done something wrong and called Hatzolah Medical Services.
In a separate statement, her lawyer Mitchell Ansell said, "The sad truth is, Naomi Elkins has a well-documented history of severe mental illness, which has absolutely played a major role in these devastating events."
Elkins was charged with two counts of murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon, according to Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer.
Elkins appeared virtually in Ocean County court before Judge Scott Basen Wednesday afternoon, from the county jail's medical facility. Her detention hearing is scheduled for July 1 and she is being represented by Mitch Ansell, a criminal defense attorney.
Jenna Calderón covers breaking news and cold cases in Monmouth and Ocean counties. Before coming to the Press, she covered The Queen City for Cincinnati Magazine in Ohio. Contact her at 330-590-3903; jcalderon@gannettnj.com
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Lakewood NJ murder: Mom told cops she killed for 'religious purposes'
