Crime & Safety
LITH Mom Sedated Children Before Strangling Them, Hanging Herself: Police
Police reports reveal more from the tragic murder-suicide in January that killed Carla Lopez-Mejia, 27, and her two children.
LAKE IN THE HILLS, IL — A Lake in the Hills woman who suffered for years from mental health issues and was struggling with a failed relationship sedated her two children before strangling them to death in January and then hanged herself, according to recently released police reports.
The police reports, which were obtained by local media outlets through a Freedom of Information request, revealed Carla Lopez-Mejia, 27, had not been taking anxiety or depression medications prescribed to her, according to the Northwest Herald. She had recently started a new antidepressant but stopped taking it the past six months with the hopes of starting fresh and to "flush all toxins out of her body."
In the day before Lopez-Mejia and her children, Ezequiel "Izzy" Garcia, 11, and Ariana Garcia, 8, were found dead in their town house in the 2300 block of Daybreak Drive in Lake in the Hills, Lopez-Mejia visited her ex-boyfriend's home unannounced and begged him for a gun, according to the newspaper.
Find out what's happening in Algonquin-Lake In The Hillsfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
That same man, whom Lopez-Mejia met online and began dating before things cooled last November, told police he wished he'd been more sensitive to Lopez-Mejia, who began to barrage him with emotional text messages and sent a letter in early January. She had also made suggestions she was pregnant to try and gain sympathy from him, though authorities have said there was no indication Lopez-Mejia was pregnant at the time of her death or had recently been pregnant, according to media reports.
Police have said they will not speculate on any motive as to why Lopez-Mejia killed her children and herself, the Northwest Herald reports.
Find out what's happening in Algonquin-Lake In The Hillsfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
A friend of Ezequiel Garcia was the one who ended up first discovering the tragic scene at the Lake in the Hills town home in January after he went to look in a window at the residence around 3 p.m. on Jan. 10 and saw a body hanging from the bannister of the stairway, according to the Chicago Tribune.
When authorities arrived, they found Ariana and Ezequiel lying on the bed in the master bedroom with the family's dog standing guard over them and stuffed animals tucked under their arms, according to the article. The children had nonfatal doses of sedatives in their systems at the time of their deaths, but the McHenry County Coroner determined the drug did not kill them and instead they died from strangulation.
In a suicide note left behind, Lopez Mejia wrote: "When people judge just know I loved my kids more than anything in (the) world ... All I wanted was a family and security and love, none of which ever were meant for us."
A notebook with the note was left on a kitchen table, the Northwest Herald reports, and also read: “I can’t stop the pain. I can’t leave my kids behind to suffer."
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
