911 calls released in slaying of SC children
May 16, 2013, 6:00 PM
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – A South Carolina woman who authorities say killed her two young children and seriously injured her husband crashed her pickup into a tree so hard the roots came out of the ground, according to 911 calls released Thursday.
In one of the calls, 35-year-old Suzanna Simpson can be heard moaning as a neighbor tells her, “It’s OK. Don’t move, OK?” as he waits for the operator to pick up. He said she was briefly knocked unconscious and seemed incoherent.
The same man calls 911 again and asks for police because Simpson’s family did not come to the door of their Pickens County home.
“Something is not right. She can’t tell me, because she doesn’t know. She’s talking away, she doesn’t know what is going on,” the man said in the call released by deputies.
Officers would rush to the home and find Simpson’s 7-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son dead, shot multiple times in their beds. Simpson’s 34-year-old husband, Michael, was found shot in the head and was taken to Greenville Memorial Hospital.
Suzanna Simpson is also in that same hospital, under armed guard after she was charged with two counts of murder and a count of attempted murder. She was in fair condition Thursday, while her husband was in critical condition, hospital spokeswoman Sandy Dees said.
Pickens County deputies have refused to talk about Suzanna Simpson’s injuries or how she suffered them. A nurse who treated her at the hospital said Simpson said she wanted to kill herself after shooting her family, but couldn’t pull the trigger, according to arrest warrants.
A third 911 call from the neighbor’s daughter said Simpson’s pickup truck hit the tree near their yard so hard it was pulled partially out of the ground.
Simpson doesn’t appear to have any criminal record, deputies said. School officials in Pickens County said she was a helpful parent who volunteered at Dacusville Elementary School, where both her children attended.
Deputies plan to take Simpson to jail as soon as she is released from the hospital. It wasn’t known if she had an attorney.
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