news conference Friday<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\nVidal, 34, later told cops that she was the mother of the two deceased children \u2014 and \u201cthat she was the one that we would be looking for,\u201d said San Antonio Police Assistant Chief Jesse Salame.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The bodies of two children who are believed to be 5 and 7 were discovered inside the torched white Hyundai, according to San Antonio authorities. KWTX<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this stage of the investigation, we have statements made by the suspect, along with surveillance video and evidence from the scene that indicate she was solely responsible for the death of these two children,\u201d Salame continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The children\u2019s bodies were pending positive identifications from the Bexar County Medical Examiner, but they were believed to be 5 and 7 years old, according to Salame, who couldn\u2019t provide the victims\u2019 genders or a definitive motive for the heinous crime.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, there are indications that mental health issues may have played a role,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s going to want to know why something like this happened, and unfortunately, the why is sometimes the hardest question to answer,\u201d Salame lamented. <\/p>\n
The assistant chief said investigators were looking to speak with the children\u2019s father and other family members in order to help establish the motive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marlene Vidal \u2014 who told cops she was the deceased children\u2019s mom \u2014 was arrested and charged with capital murder for their deaths Friday. KWTX<\/p>\n
Authorities weren\u2019t releasing information Friday about how the fire was started or where the children were positioned inside the car, as the investigation remained ongoing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before police were able to get inside the vehicle, Salame incorrectly told reporters around 7 a.m. that three children \u2013 including \u201cpossibly an infant\u201d \u2013 were believed to be inside the burnt car.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That was before members of the San Antonio Fire Department helped cops take the car apart, making it easier for investigators to get inside, Salame later explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese cases are incredibly difficult, and no matter how long you\u2019ve been doing the job, scenes involving children are never easy,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cThe emotional toll is significant, not only for the first responders and investigators, but for our entire community, and I know our community\u2019s going to be hurting right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vidal \u2013 who is from Edinburg, a city about 230 miles north of San Antonio \u2013 was arrested and charged with capital murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole or the death penalty in Texas. A date for her arraignment had not been set as of Friday afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Investigators had evidence from the scene and surveillance footage that showed Vidal committing the heartless crimes, San Antonio Police Department Assistant Chief Jesse Salame said. KWTX<\/p>\n
One of her deceased children attended pre-K last year at Vanguard Academy, a charter school in Edinburg, the school confirmed to the San Antonio Express-News<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\nIDEA Public Schools also told the outlet that Vidal\u2019s children were registered to attend school in the district for the 2025-\u201926 school year, but declined to say how many of her children were enrolled or which grades they\u2019d be in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services was reportedly investigating the case, but wouldn\u2019t provide details about any prior interactions with Vidal or her children until their probe concluded.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Texas mom has been charged with capital murder after her two young children were found dead inside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4028,670,12023,14551,672,27,29,28,734],"class_list":["post-296096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-arrests","tag-children","tag-investigations","tag-murders","tag-police","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}