Updated at 4:45 p.m. to include details from a probable-cause affidavit.
IRVING — A 30-year-old woman was arrested in the deaths of her young daughters after she called 911 and told police she had killed her children, police said.
Madison McDonald drove to the Irving Police Department around 10 p.m. Monday and used the phone in the lobby to call 911, police said.
She allegedly told dispatchers that she had killed her two daughters, 1-year-old Lillian Mae McDonald and 6-year-old Archer Hammond.
According to a probable-cause affidavit, McDonald told police over the phone that she had sedated and smothered her kids. She also said that she had tucked them into bed at the Anthem Apartment Homes complex in the 700 block of Cowboys Parkway.
In the lobby, McDonald told officers that her kids were being abused and that she would do anything to protect them, including “eliminating them,” according to the affidavit.
She also told police that her elder daughter was in the master bedroom and that the younger was in the spare bedroom at the apartment, the affidavit said. Officers went to the complex and confirmed that both daughters were dead.
At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, police spokesman Robert Reeves said a medical examiner would determine the official cause of death.
Police said they were not aware of an exact motive.
“We might not ever know the why,” Reeves said, “because there’s not going to be a definition or reason that would ever justify the murder of two small children.”
McDonald faces two counts of capital murder of a person under the age of 10, police said. She was being held in the Irving jail without bail. She was to be transferred later to the Dallas County jail.
It was unclear whether she had an attorney.
Anyone with information may contact the police at 972-273-1010 or ipdcrimetips@cityofirving.org and reference case No. 21-6989.
Clarification 6:33 p.m.: Irving police initially released the incorrect case number for this incident.
