After her two children were strangled to death, a Texas mother called police... on herself.
Saiqa Akhter, 30, was arrested on Monday night and is expected to be charged with capital murder for the death of her son Zain, 5, who died on Monday, according to the Dallas Morning News. Her daughter, Faryaal, died Tuesday evening.
The woman's uncle, Wasimul Haque, said Akhter had been depressed, the Associated Press reported.
"It looks like she had mental problems. I don't understand why she did it," said Haque.
Akhter called police around 5 p.m. on Monday from her Irving home, about 15 miles from Dallas. She told the operator she used a wire to strangle her children until they turned blue.
The uncle said Zain had autism and a severe speech impediment but was improving. He added that the kids' father, Rashid Akhter, was "totally broken."
Police said the woman was the only one at home at the time of the murder.
It isn't the couple's first brush with law enforcement. In May 2009, the parents were contacted by Child Protective Services after they left their son home alone to take their daughter, who was having respiratory problems, to the hospital.
"They admitted to it and they said they understand why it was dangerous to leave a child that young at home by themselves," said Marissa Gonzales, a CPS spokeswoman.
"They said they had been really concerned about their daughter and so they just hadn't been thinking but they were adamant that it wouldn't happen again."
