{"id":321009,"date":"2026-05-18T09:41:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T09:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/321009\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T09:41:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T09:41:43","slug":"mother-accused-in-deaths-of-her-two-young-children-held-on-2-1m-bond-as-memorial-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/321009\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother accused in deaths of her two young children held on $2.1M bond as memorial grows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SAN ANTONIO &#8211; A growing memorial of flowers, candles, and stuffed animals now marks the spot on San Antonio\u2019s West Side where two young children were found dead inside a burned vehicle Friday morning, as the children\u2019s mother remains jailed on a $2.1 million bond.<\/p>\n<p>Their father identified the children as Adrian \u201cAkeel\u201d Akeel, 5, and Aleeza Elena, 7. <\/p>\n<p>According to a fundraiser for the family, Aleeza dreamed of becoming a doctor and believed she was \u201ca little angel.\u201d Adrian, who was autistic and nonverbal, was remembered as energetic, charming, and fearless despite the challenges he faced.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news4sanantonio.com\/news\/local\/two-dead-people-in-a-burned-vehicle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">RELATED: Mother charged with capital murder after two kids found dead in burned vehicle<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The children were found inside a burned white Hyundai along Richland Hills Drive early Friday morning after a passerby walking a dog spotted the vehicle on fire and called 911.<\/p>\n<p>San Antonio police arrested the children\u2019s mother, 34-year-old Marlene Vidal of Edinburg, at the scene. Authorities said Vidal identified herself as the children\u2019s mother and acknowledged officers would be looking for her in connection with the deaths.<\/p>\n<p>Court records show Vidal faces two capital murder charges and one arson charge. Bond was set at $1 million for each capital murder charge and $100,000 for the arson charge, bringing the total bond amount to $2.1 million.<\/p>\n<p>According to court documents, the judge also imposed several bond conditions, including GPS monitoring, a no-contact order, and a prohibition against possessing firearms. Vidal requested a court-appointed attorney during her magistrate hearing on Friday evening.<\/p>\n<p>By Saturday, community members had transformed the area near the crime scene into a memorial for the children. Stuffed animals, bouquets of flowers, candles, and handwritten notes lined the roadside as neighbors and strangers stopped to pay their respects.<\/p>\n<p>Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n<p>BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n<p>The children\u2019s family is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-for-adrian-aleezas-funeral?attribution_id=sl:7f51c487-5e36-478e-974c-375b3c5a098f&amp;lang=en_US&amp;ts=1778947344&amp;utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&amp;utm_content=amp17_ta-amp20_control&amp;utm_medium=customer&amp;utm_source=copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">now raising money to help cover funeral and burial expenses<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO &#8211; A growing memorial of flowers, candles, and stuffed animals now marks the spot on San&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-321009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}