Florida mother charged with murder of two daughters after botched 'baptism' in canal

A Florida mother was alleged to have been involved in the murder of her two young daughters, weeks after they were found dead in a canal.

Bodies of two young sisters Destiny Hogan, 9, and Daysha Hogan, 7, were pulled from a canal in Lauderhill on June 22. Destiny's body was first spotted floating in the canal around noon that day, while her younger sister's remains were discovered hours later.

Daysha's body had no obvious signs of trauma, though Destiny appeared to have pale white hands and there was also a white substance on her face. Soon after the bodies were discovered, their mother Tinessa Hogan was identified as a person of interest in the case, as she was the one last seen with the victims. The 36-year-old has been in hospital since then, due to her allegedly erratic behaviour in the days prior to the crime.

According to police reports, Hogan, who lived with her daughters in a building near the canal, was spotted wandering around there the day before her daughters' deaths. Several people also mentioned that she had been offering to baptise neighbourhood children in the canal that runs behind a condominium complex, on the day her daughters were found.

"She was in the canal. She was offering to baptise people in the neighborhood," Lauderhill Police Department Lt. Mike Bigwood had previously revealed.

Lawana Johnson, one of the neighbours, told CBS Miami, "She was in the water swimming, she had a Bible and she told me to come here. I said, 'Why?' She said she wanted to baptise me. She says God told her, I say 'God didn't tell you anything.' " Marie Williams, another neighbour, revealed to the Sun Sentinel that Hogan made her the same offer for her children but she declined.

Hogan was finally arrested on Tuesday, July 13, and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. However, the police have not yet released information about how she committed the murders of her children, or what was her motive behind it. She has not yet entered any plea to the charges against her, reports People.