A Texas woman who pleaded guilty to drowning her two young children and hiding their corpses under a neighbor’s house over seven years ago was handed a 40-year prison sentence on Monday, February 27.
Sheborah Latrice Thomas admitted to two murder counts for the death of her two children, Araylon Thomas, 7, and Kayiana Thomas, 5.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office released a statement announcing the 40-year sentence. According to District Attorney Kim Ogg, the mother knew exactly what she was doing and understood that what she had done was wrong.
DA Ogg said that her office vowed to get justice for the children, and the plea agreement meant that family members would not have to endure more heartache by testifying on the stand and that Thomas could not appeal the sentence.
According to the press release, Thomas took her daughter Kayiana to the bathtub of their home in Houston on August 12, 2016, and drowned her, then placed her daughter’s lifeless body on a bed. She then similarly drowned her son Araylon.
She put both bodies in a garbage can behind her house the next day, went to work, and asked for her paycheck. She returned home and tried to dig a grave to bury the bodies, but it proved daunting.
She hid the bodies underneath her neighbor’s home when she failed to dig a hole.
Thomas, seemingly proud of her heinous actions, told a friend what she had done and that she had to leave town. She even showed him where she hid the bodies. The friend called Houston Police, who recovered the bodies and promptly arrested her.
Police said she also had a 12-year-old son, but he was not home at the time of the murders.
Thomas had lost custody of her children four years earlier, in 2012, after police found one of her kids wandering in the streets with a homeless man.
Child Protective Services and Houston police officers had also visited Thomas’ home the day before she drowned her children, according to a family member.
Assistant DA Sarah Moss said the family finally had closure.
