Two children dead, apparently drowned at Northern California home; mother arrested
An infant and a toddler died Thursday at a home in rural Northern California, apparently drowned by their mother who was then arrested on suspicion of homicide, sheriff’s officials said.
Deputies arrested the 25-year-old mother, Courtney Williams, after responding to a home in the 6100 block of Sunshine Avenue in Linda, where her husband called 911 after discovering she had drowned their two young boys in a bathtub, the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department announced Thursday in a news release.
The boys’ father returned home from work just before noon, when his wife, Williams, allegedly told him that she had hurt the children, sheriff’s officials said. The father searched the home and found his sons unresponsive in the bathtub full of water.
Sheriff’s officials said deputies arrived at the home, found the boys in a bathroom and immediately began performing CPR.
Despite attempts to save their lives, the two children, 2-and-a-half-year-old Ronin and his 5-month-old brother Holden, were pronounced dead at the scene, the Sheriff’s Office said.
“At this time, detectives believe the apparent drowning of the boys was intentional,” according to the sheriff’s news release.
Williams was arrested on suspicion of homicide in connection with her sons’ deaths.
“The tragic loss of 5-month-old Holden and his 2-and-a-half-year-old brother Ronin reverberates throughout our department and into the community,” Yuba County Sheriff Wendell Anderson said in the news release. “There are no words to adequately describe the sadness we feel for the family at this time.”
Linda is a town of about 22,000 people, east of Marysville and about 40 miles north of Sacramento.
This story was originally published April 7, 2022 at 5:26 PM.
