UPDATE: Santa Ana detectives have arrested the mother of two children found dead in a hotel room Saturday. She is from Arizona, according to CBS News.
A 42-year-old woman whose last known residence was in San Jose intentionally crashed her car behind a Costa Mesa store, and then said something that led the police to investigate a Santa Ana hotel room, where two children were found dead inside, police said Saturday. Police have not disclosed the relationship between the woman and children or how they died, according to the O.C. Register.
As paramedics were preparing to take the injured woman to a hospital, “she made some statements that indicated a crime might have occurred” in Santa Ana, Costa Mesa Sgt. Tim Starn said, according to the AP.
The children’s bodies were discovered inside a room at a Hampton Inn & Suites around 8:20 a.m., Santa Ana police told KTLA 5 News. The hotel is located at 2720 Hotel Terrace Drive off the 55 freeway, according to KTLA.
No other details were released but officials said the woman attempted to commit suicide by crashing her vehicle into protective poles surrounding an electrical box located near the rear parking lot of a Home Depot in the 2300 block of Harbor Boulevard, according to KABC.
The children’s gender, ages and cause of death aren’t being disclosed, pending a coroner’s report, said Cpl. Anthony Bertagna, spokesman for the Santa Ana Police Department. The unidentified woman was taken to Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach. Her condition was not immediately known, according to the L.A. Times.