California Mom Admits Drowning Her Three Children in Jailhouse Interview

"I drowned them. I did it as softly, I don't know how to explain it," she told KGET in a jailhouse interview. "I hugged them. I kissed them. I was apologizing the whole time. I loved my kids."

She said she did it to protect them from their father, who she claimed is involved in human trafficking. The pair were involved in a bitter custody dispute.

"I didn't want them to be further abused. I loved my kids," she said. "I wish this didn't have to be the case, but I promised to protect them."

She told the broadcaster she had intended killing herself also: "I tried to drive off the top off a cliff and die."

When asked if she regretted her actions, she replied: "I wish my kids were alive, yes. Do I wish I didn't have to do that? Yes. But I prefer them not being tortured and abused on a regular basis for the rest of their life."

Her final message to her children, she said, was "I love you. And I'm sorry."

Previous reports had indicated that the siblings were stabbed to death.

The mom accused of stabbing her three young children to death in California was involved in a bitter custody dispute, it has emerged.

On Saturday the children's grandmother called police after arriving at their Reseda apartment and finding the three — aged just three, two and six months — brutally murdered, and their mother missing.

Liliana Carrillo, 30, was arrested that same day after leading police on a long distance chase, during which she allegedly carjacked a pick-up truck in Bakersfield.

The children's devastated father Erik Denton told the LA Times that she was supposed to hand the children over to him on Sunday.

Per the publication, he had requested a temporary emergency visitation order on March 4, and had petitioned for a mental health evaluation for her. In response, she sought a temporary domestic violence restraining order against him eight days later. Another hearing in the case was scheduled for April 14.

He told the paper he had tried to get local authorities to intervene, but "in L.A. they wouldn't help. The LAPD would not get involved."

The crime scene where three-year-old Joanna, two-year-old Terry and six-month-old Sierra were murdered was reportedly so gruesome, some officers needed emergency counseling. "These are the moments we carry throughout our career," Lieutenant Raul Joel told the Times. "It's hard to process that as a police officer."

Joel also said there had bee no prior calls to the Carrillo residence.

Heartbreaking footage shot by CBS LA on Sunday night showed the bereaved father laying balloons, toys and a bubble machine at a memorial for his slain children.

Noticing he was wearing the very shirt he was wearing in one of the photos with his children, he removed and folded it, and left that too.

Erik's cousin Dr. Teri Miller told the broadcaster that the family had become concerned for Carrillo after she became mentally unwell after the birth of her second child -- and said things only got worse after the arrival of her third, amid reports of new Covid strains.

"She believed that the city they were living in was unsafe and that there was a sex-trafficking ring and that most of the city was involved in it," she said, adding the mother believed her children were getting pulled into the trafficking ring.

"I mean, we're completely destroyed," she added. "Those kids were everything. I mean, his whole being and essence just revolves around those kids. He had his heart set on seeing the kids because he was supposed to pick the kids up today and have them for the week."

A GoFundMe set up to help the father has raised $27k.