Mom Told Police She Drowned Two Kids, 1, And 3, For 'Religious Purposes'

A New Jersey mother accused of murdering her two young daughters, ages one and three, told investigators that she drowned them for "religious purposes."

Naomi Elkins , 27, was arrested on Tuesday (June 25) at her home in Lakewood after calling 911. When officers arrived, they found a serrated knife in the kitchen sink and two bathtubs filled with water.

Paramedics were on-scene and performing CPR on the two children. They were unable to revive the young girls and pronounced them dead at the scene.

Elkins told investigators that she stabbed her one-year-old daughter in the stomach and then drowned her in the bathtub . She then filled a tub in another bathroom and held her three-year-old daughter underwater for several minutes until she was dead.

Investigators said that Elkins told them that she began having "concerning thoughts" in May. She said she had similar thoughts on Tuesday before dropping her kids off at daycare. She then spent the day praying and came to the conclusion that "she needed to kill the children."

"She said that once she was home, she believed that she needed to kill the children for religious purposes," officers wrote in court documents.

Elkins was taken into custody and charged with two counts of murder , possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and unlawful possession of a weapon.