Woman Poisons Her Children With Toilet Cleaner To Draw Them Closer To Jesus

oge okonkwo

November 5, 2014 5:23 PM

West told them then she and the children stood in the front yard naked before getting dressed again and going to a neighbors home to ask if the neighbor knew Jesus

A woman in Florida was said to have forced her two young children to drink toilet bowl cleaner and reportedly downed some of the chemical herself in what the police are calling an attempted murder-suicide.

29-year-old Amelia West admitted to the police that she fed her kids toilet bowl cleaner to drink and is now facing attempted murder and child abuse charges.

Police say they found the woman and her two children -- ages 2 months and 2 years old -- at her Port Orange home after responding to a report of suicide attempt.

WESH reports that prior to giving her children the chemicals, West told police she brought her and her children into a bedroom and had them all get undressed and lay naked together on the floor. Police said West told them then she and the children stood in the front yard naked before getting dressed again and going to a neighbors home to ask if the neighbor knew Jesus.

The kids were treated at a local hospital and later released into the custody of a relative.

"Thankfully the children are okay. This could have been much worse," Department of Children and Families spokesperson John Harrell told WFTV.

West told police that she'd tried to harm herself before when she lived in Tennessee, and that she was depressed after her recent move to Florida.

West was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail, charged with two counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated child abuse.

oge okonkwo