A mother has been taken into custody after the bodies of her two daughters were found hours apart Tuesday along a canal in South Florida, according to multiple reports.
Tinessa Hogan was being questioned by authorities as a person of interest in the case, but so far no criminal charges have been filed, according to The Miami Herald.
Investigators are also looking into reports that Hogan was spotted a day earlier swimming with her girls in the canal and carrying a Bible while offering to baptize her neighbor’s children, the Herald reported.
It was the last time the girls were seen alive.
Their bodies were found the next day more than eight hours apart in the same L-shaped canal in Lauderhill, reports said.
They were identified as 7-year-old Daysha Hogan and 9-year-old Destiny Hogan.
Authorities have not yet determined how they died.
Destiny’s body was spotted just after noon Tuesday, and Daysha’s body was found just before 9 p.m. about 500 feet from her sister near the Habitat II Condominium in Lauderhill, according to the Sun-Sentinel. The canal runs directly behind homes located on NW 21st Street, not far from Florida’s Turnpike.
On Wednesday morning, Lauderhill Police Lt. Mike Santiago said detectives had developed “very strong leads” but acknowledged investigators had not developed any suspects in the case. “Hopefully by this afternoon we should have a lot more information,” he said, according to reports. After detectives knocked on doors in the neighborhood and asked the public for help, Hogan’s name surfaced along with reports of her being seen in the canal Monday evening.
The first body was found floating in the waterway about noon Tuesday.
Neighbor Lawana Johnson said she called 911 after seeing the girl’s body.
“It shocked me ... I froze, then I started to cry,” she said, according to CBS News.
From there, detectives walked the length of the canal behind the community but did not find anything else. About 8:45 p.m., police received a second 911 call reporting the second girl’s body, which was spotted further northwest in the same canal, reports said.
The first girl was wearing jean shorts and a gray T-shirt with the word, “Dance” in rainbow-colored lettering, police said. The second girl was wearing a tan top and flowered pajama pants, police said.
There was no early indication of trauma or foul play, which initially stumped investigators.
“We can’t determine at this point if they’re related, because it’s just, the juvenile was just found,” Santiago said at a news conference Tuesday night. “However, detectives are trying to piece the puzzle together.”
Residents in the area said they perhaps saw the first girl in the neighborhood in the past, and that another girl may have been with her, but police were uncertain whether the second girl was the other child found dead.
Police were able to obtain photographs of the family, which they used to ask neighbors for more information.
The family lived in the area, and the mother, believed to be in her late 30s, was known to neighbors by the name Precious, according to Lauderhill Police Lt. Mike Bigwood. There were no records of child welfare workers ever responding to the family’s home, and the girls were never reported missing.
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