SANTA ANA, Calif. — Two children with ties to Cobb County were found dead in a Southern California hotel room after their suicidal mother crashed her car outside a shopping complex, a police spokesman said Sunday.
The children’s mother, Marilyn Edge, 42, of Scottsdale, Ariz., was arrested Saturday and booked on suspicion of murder in the deaths, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said. She was expected in court Tuesday for an arraignment hearing.
Police said the children were a 13-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl. Further information, including their names, the motive and the cause of death, was not being released, he said. The children’s father lives out-of-state and was not notified of their deaths until Sunday.
Channel 2 Action News reported that police believe the children had been living with their father in Cobb County.
Los Angeles television station KTLA reported that the children’s father, Mark Edge of Marietta, had full custody, and that Marilyn Edge was expected to return the children to Georgia over the weekend.
Cobb County court records show that Mark and Marilyn Edge were divorced in 2007.
Marilyn Edge was driving a car with Georgia license plates when she crashed into an electrical box outside a shopping complex in Costa Mesa on Saturday morning, police say. Her most recent address was in Arizona, Bertagna said, and it wasn’t immediately clear why she had come to Orange County.
After the crash, Marilyn Edge refused to get out of the car and tried to choke herself with a belt or rope as rescuers worked to free her, he said. Police found propane tanks in her car.
As she was being taken to the hospital, Marilyn Edge told authorities they could find her children at a hotel in nearby Santa Ana. After officers discovered the bodies, police obtained a search warrant late Saturday for the hotel room and worked overnight on the case, Bertagna said.
“Last night, it was mainly trying to figure out who these people were and dealing with the scene itself,” he said.
No weapon had been recovered from the scene, Bertagna said.
Hotel guests were stunned at the discovery at the quiet inn on a sunny weekend in Southern California.
“My goodness, if there’s two children involved that’s just horrendous to say the least,” Mike Ramey, who was staying at the hotel with his fiancée, told KABC-TV. “As a parent, it’s just a heartbreaker.”
It wasn’t immediately clear if Marilyn Edge had an attorney.
Staff writer Mike Morris and The Associated Press contributed to this article.
