This is getting crazy. RedState has been following a disturbing series of cases involving mothers accused of brutally attacking or killing their own children.
Now there is another one, and this time two young men are dead. Texas authorities have charged 42-year-old Colleen Nichole Lemmon with two counts of capital murder after investigators say she shot both of her sons inside their Waxahachie home early Thursday morning.
Her oldest son, Christopher Scott Pitre, 21, was pronounced dead at the scene. His 15-year-old brother was rushed to a hospital in critical condition but later died. Authorities have not released the younger boy's name.
The details contained in a search-warrant affidavit are even more disturbing. According to local reporting on the affidavit, Ellis County dispatchers received a 911 call that disconnected. After getting the caller back on the line, a woman reportedly said that "all units" were needed before the call disconnected again.
When deputies reached the home, they could hear a woman yelling at them to get more units and telling them she had a gun in her hand. Deputies encountered Lemmon with blood on her hands, according to the affidavit.
When officers entered the mobile home, they reportedly found her in the living room "covered in blood with a gun next to her." She also appeared to have what the affidavit described as self-inflicted cuts to her wrists. Then came the alleged admission.
"I shot both of my kids," Lemmon told deputies, according to the affidavit.
She told officers the two victims were in the master bedroom and a back bedroom. Deputies found Pitre and his 15-year-old brother with gunshot wounds to their heads.
Pitre was pronounced dead at the scene. His younger brother was transported to a hospital, where he later died from his injuries.
Investigators said evidence recovered during the investigation established probable cause to identify Lemmon as the person responsible for shooting both sons.
Lemmon herself suffered injuries authorities described as non-life-threatening. She was taken to a hospital for treatment before being transported to the Wayne McCollum Detention Center and booked on two counts of capital murder. Her bond was reportedly set at $2.5 million.
Authorities have not publicly identified a motive or explained what they believe happened in the hours leading up to the shootings.
What makes the story particularly unsettling is how quickly it follows several other cases involving mothers accused of horrific violence against their children.
Just days ago, RedState reported on South Carolina mother Taylor Gosnell, who authorities say stabbed her two young children approximately 50 times.
"Between the two children, we're estimating that there were approximately 50 stab wounds," Graham McLellan with the sheriff's office said.
Prosecutors said some of those wounds went all the way to the children's bones.
"Some of the lacerations were so deep they cut to the bone," the solicitor's office said.
Both children survived, but the six-year-old boy suffered injuries so severe that prosecutors said he faced the possibility of losing fingers or even an arm.
That case itself followed other disturbing incidents RedState has covered involving alleged maternal violence.
In Illinois, prosecutors accused Corie Walsh of killing her two-year-old son while believing the child was the "devil" and the "anti-Christ." According to previous reporting, Walsh had also been discussing the Lindsay Clancy case with friends only hours before her son was found dead.
And then there is Clancy's own high-profile Massachusetts case, which ended in a mistrial after she was accused of killing her three young children.
The rapid succession of high-profile cases involving mothers allegedly inflicting extreme violence on their own children is difficult to dismiss as sheer coincidence.
The Clancy case also produced a national debate over postpartum psychosis, mental illness and how psychiatric conditions should factor into criminal culpability. One Clancy juror, Paula Devlin, described the trial afterward as an opportunity to "get a conversation started."
"We didn't know what was going on outside of that room, but we knew that we had a chance to get a conversation started that could change something, that could maybe stop this from ever happening again," Devlin said.
She later added: "We knew that this was a turning point, and this would be something that could change something to make it better for other women. You know, justice for those children is this never happening again."
Yet here we are again. It is almost like the "message" to be sent to those who would possibly kill their own children is they would go to prison for the rest of their lives. Or, they might possibly even be executed.
Whatever criminal trial follows in the aftermath, Christopher Scott Pitre and his younger brother should remain at the center of this story. They are the victims.