Lakewood Mom Who Drowned Daughters Goes On Trial: Report

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A Lakewood woman who drowned her toddlers and told authorities she believed she needed to for religious reasons has been found not guilty by reason of insanity and ordered to be held in a psychiatric hospital for the rest of her life, according to a report.

Elkins stood trial Tuesday before Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan on two counts of murder in the June 2024 deaths of her daughters, ages 3 and 22 months, the Asbury Park Press reported.

A psychologist testified Elkins, 27, told him during a series of interviews that she believed her daughters' deaths would put an end to evil in the world and believed that either she or her husband was the Messiah, the report said.

Elkins was arrested June 25 at her home on Shenandoah Drive after authorities responded to a call reporting two children in cardiac arrest and arrived to find Hatzolah Medical Services EMTs trying to resuscitate them, the prosecutor's office said at the time. Both children were pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators determined both children had been drowned, and the younger one also had been stabbed, and that Elkins was responsible for the deaths of both children, the prosecutor's office said.

She told investigators that she had struggled with hearing voices for several hours and believed that she needed to kill the children for religious purposes, according to the affidavit filed in the case.

"During the interview, she indicated that she knew that it was illegal to kill her children and that what she did was wrong," the affidavit said.

A relative of the family told The Lakewood Scoop that Elkins had suffered mental health issues for some time.

"The mother of the girls that committed this unthinkable act had a history of mental illness, specifically psychosis, though she was doing much better over the last year or so," the family member said in the letter published by the Lakewood Scoop.

"Apparently she tragically experienced some kind of psychotic episode without any warning signs," the family member said. "There simply are no words to describe the shock and pain."

Gianni Pirelli, the psychologist, who testified Tuesday, said Elkins was "undoubtedly psychotic" at the time she killed her children, the Asbury Park Press report said.

Ryan found Elkins killed her children but was not guilty by reason of insanity, the report said, and ordered her committed to a psychiatric hospital for two lifetimes; each life term is 75 years under state law, the report said.

Previous reporting:

• Mother Drowned, Stabbed Her 2 Toddlers In Lakewood: Prosecutor
• Lakewood Mom Believed She Had To Kill Daughters For Religious Reasons: Document