Mom Arrested In Kids' Murders

A woman who apparently attempted suicide after her two children were found dead in a bathtub was arrested Saturday on murder charges.

Rebekah Amaya, 32, was being returned from a hospital in Colorado Springs to face the charges, said Police Capt. Rick Copess. She had been hospitalized after slashing her wrists in an apparent suicide attempt. She will be held without bond on two counts of first-degree murder, he said.

The children, identified as Grace Headlee, 4, and Gabriel Amaya, 5 months, were found dead Thursday by Gabriel's father, Leo Amaya. He told police his wife had been suffering stress problems.

"Words cannot express the shock and grief we feel at this time," Leo Amaya said.

Mark Headlee, a Lamar police officer who is Grace's father and Rebekah Amaya's former husband, returned from Utah where he had been on military duty. His family declined to comment Friday.

The deaths shocked the town of 8,700 near the Kansas border, about 170 miles southeast of Denver. They were the town's first homicides in more than a decade.

"This is a pretty close-knit community, and with something like this, we will pull together," said Misty Clark, who has done business with Leo Amaya's company, Amaya's Monograms Plus.