United States police have announced that two boys have died after being shot in the head by their mother who left a chilling handwritten note.
The mother is accused of shooting her sons on May 2 while they slept at their Philadelphia home, according to investigators.
This past Sunday, the Council Rock School District announced the deaths of 13-year-old Jeffrey “JT” and 9-year-old Nelson Tin, reports CBS3.
In an updated criminal complaint filed on May 9, Bucks County and Upper Makefield Township detectives claimed that their mother, Trinh Nguyen, 38, scheduled the killing at least a week before the shooting.
The detectives say she left a handwritten note, dated April 25, 2022, that instructed the recipient on what to do with her and her sons remains.
During her arraignment on Monday, Nguyen reportedly said very little as prosecutors explained how she drove to New Jersey to purchase heroin after shooting her sons.
She then took the drugs while in the parking lot of a church near her home, and wrote a note containing her address that said: “Please call 911! My children are dead in their bed,” according to the affidavit of probable cause for her arrest.
The boys were treated at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where they died four days after the shooting.
Nguyen has been charged with first-degree murder after initially being charged with attempted murder, prosecutors say.
Although a motive has not been released by police, local media reported that Nguyen and her sons were set to be evicted from half of a duplex they shared with the family of her ex-husband.
Records reviewed by The Philadelphia Inquirer reportedly showed that she owed over $11,000 in unpaid rent to her ex-sister-in-law, who owned the building.
In a statement, Matt Weintraub, Bucks County District Attorney, said that he has been praying for Jeffrey and Nelson and their surviving family members.
“This defendant’s murder of two of her sons is unconscionable and horrific," he said.
"We will do what needs to be done to seek justice for all of them."
The district attorney's statement said on the morning of the shooting, the nephew of Nguyen's ex-husband heard gunfire and went to see what happened.
He found Nguyen on the front lawn holding a box of photos, according to Weintraub.
She reportedly asked him to give the photos to her ex-husband. When he agreed, she allegedly pulled out a gun and pointed it in his face.
She pulled the trigger twice, and incredibly the gun did not go off, according to the district attorney statement.
The nephew was able to wrestle the gun away from her before she fled in her minivan, the arrest affidavit said.
Hours after the shooting, a church called police to report that Nguyen's van was in their parking lot after they recognized it from a social media post.
After Nguyen was arrested, she was rushed to the hospital because she swallowed heroin in an attempt to kill herself, prosecutors said.
There was extra ammunition for the gun in the van with her, they claimed.
The district attorney said that Nguyen faces two counts of murder of the first degree and one count each of attempted killing, possession of an instrument of crime, and possession of controlled substance charges.