A Phoenix, Ariz., mother reportedly shrieked in religious fervor even as her three, missing young sons were found stuffed in a closet after being stabbed to death and partially dismembered, newly released court records indicate. Octavia Rogers, 29, was released from a hospital and booked into jail Sunday in Phoenix on suspicion of three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of the boys, who were 8 years, 5 years and 2 months old.
Authorities found the boys' bodies beneath clothes' piles and boxes. Phoenix police Sgt. Trent Crump said Rogers' 2-month-old son was found in a suitcase.
Crump also said Rogers may have been pregnant.
USA Today reported the woman and her children lived with the woman's brother and both siblings' mother, Tanella McCoy.
The court report states Rogers' brother told police she recently began researching various religious ideologies. He said found his sister in the her house's garage after returning from work late Wednesday. There, Rogers told him she "had the answers" and referenced the Mayan calendar. He called her "incoherent."
The brother told police she then locked him out of the house and he had to force his way in.
After the mother locked herself in a room, her brother said he called 911 at approximately 2 a.m. Inside the room, police said she stabbed herself in the abdomen and neck. Police found Rogers bleeding in a bathtub, screaming that "she was the creator" and "wanted to go back to the creator," according to the report.
When the brother went to get towels to help his sister, he told officers she tried to drown herself. When emergency responders were treating the woman, she indicated that her children were with someone else, Crump said.
A booking photo of Octavia Rogers shows a wound several inches long across her throat.
Rogers was being held in lieu of $1 million bond.
The accused mother's older sister, Voniticia Nickerson, called Rogers a devoted mother, and said she saw no signs Rogers was troubled.
Police said Rogers originally lied to her brother about the location of the children, and later said, "for all I know, they can be in the closet."
Police said they found a broken knife blade inside a bloody sheet and another knife blade in Rogers' purse.
"She didn't go out. She didn't party. She didn't do any of that," Roger's mother told USA Today.
McCoy said her daughter had no reason to be overwhelmed with the stresses of motherhood because she had plenty of help with the boys. The grandmother also shared that she didn't see anything amiss with her daughter as McCoy was leaving for work about 9:15 p.m. MST Wednesday.
