Mother arrested in stabbing deaths of 8 children in northeast Australia

USPA News - The mother of seven of eight young children who were found stabbed to death at a house in northeastern Australia has been arrested on suspicion of murder, authorities said on Saturday, but the motive for the brutal killings remains unknown. Mersane Warria, 37, was formally placed under arrest early on Saturday while undergoing treatment and a mental health assessment at Cairns Hospital.

The Queensland Police Service said the woman had been arrested on suspicion of murder but she has not yet been charged. She remains under police guard while receiving treatment. The gruesome scene was discovered at around 11:20 a.m. on Friday when police were called to the Manoora suburb in Cairns after reports of a woman with serious injuries. When officers went to check inside the woman`s residence, they located the bodies of eight children who were stabbed to death. The victims have been identified as four girls aged 14, 12, 11 and two, and four boys aged nine, eight, six and five. Their names have not yet been released due to `cultural sensitivities,` but Warria is the mother of the seven youngest children and the aunt of the 14-year-old girl. The woman`s two other children were not harmed. The bodies of the children were removed from the house overnight, and autopsies were being conducted later on Saturday. "We have a number of scientific police officers on the scene today, but there is a lot of evidence to gather, and we need to make sure that we put all of the pieces of the puzzle in the correct place," said Cairns Detective Inspector Bruno Asnicar. "Police located weapons, namely knives, within the house, and these will be examined." A possible motive for the killings was not immediately known, but police said the woman was assisting police with their investigation. The local Cairns Post newspaper cited an unidentified neighbor as saying that she heard shouting and screaming coming from the residence at around 10 a.m. on Friday, nearly 1.5 hour before the scene was discovered, but she was not sure who the voices belonged to and she did not call the police.