A Texas judge handed down a 40-year sentence to a woman on Monday, February 27. Almost eight years ago, she drowned her two young children and hid their bodies under her neighbor’s house.
Sheborah Latrice Thomas admitted to the murders of her 7-year-old son, Araylon, and 5-year-old daughter, Kayiana.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office in Texas made public the 40-year sentence in a statement. Prosecutor Kim Ogg maintains the mother was fully aware of the consequences of her actions and knew they were wrong.
DA Ogg promised to do everything in her power to ensure the children received justice, and the plea agreement spared the children’s loved ones the ordeal of testifying against Thomas and prevented Thomas from appealing her sentence.
According to the news release, Thomas took her daughter Kayiana to the bathroom of their Houston home on August 12, 2016, where she drowned her and then placed her body on a bed. Then she did the same thing to her son, Araylon.
The following day, she took both bodies and dumped them in a trash can behind her house before heading to work to demand payment. When she returned home, she tried to dig a grave to bury the bodies, but she eventually gave up because of how difficult it was.
In the end, she hid the bodies beneath her neighbor’s house because she couldn’t dig a hole.
Thomas appeared proud of her heinous deeds when she told a friend about them and why she had to leave town. She didn’t merely inform him of the location of the hidden bodies; she took him there herself. Police in Houston tracked down and arrested the murder suspect after hearing from the friend.
The woman’s 12-year-old son was not at home at the time of the crimes.
Thomas lost custody of her children in 2012 after police found one of them wandering the streets with a homeless man.
A family member claims that Child Protective Services and Houston police officers visited Thomas’ home the day before she drowned her children.
According to Assistant District Attorney Sarah Moss, the family can rest more easily now that the case has been resolved.