Mother in custody after 2 children found dead in submerged car

By the CNN Wire Staff
August 17, 2010 -- Updated 1252 GMT (2052 HKT)



(CNN) -- In a case a sheriff says has "a stench of foul play," two children were found dead in a South Carolina river, and police have arrested their mother.

Shaquan Duley, 29, faces charges of leaving the scene of an accident, authorities said.

The bodies of her two sons, ages 1 and 2, were found by divers in her Chrysler sedan in the Edisto River near a boat landing after state troopers responded to a report of a car accident early Monday. The bodies were sent to the county coroner for autopsies.

It wasn't immediately known whether Duley had retained an attorney.

Orangeburg County Sheriff Larry Williams said he couldn't confirm reports that the key was still in the car's ignition, but he said the car apparently was in neutral.

He added Duley didn't appear wet, saying, "She didn't have any evidence that she had been submerged in the water."

The car went off the boat ramp that is about 10 yards off the road's shoulder and sits at a 90-degree angle to the road.

Duley told authorities she was driving down the road and lost control of the vehicle where the boat ramp was, Williams told HLN's Nancy Grace. However, he added, "There's no evidence that she ran off the road at any time."

Duley walked nearly a mile before calling for help, telling authorities she flagged down a motorist to borrow a cell phone to summon help, Williams said. Police are trying to track down that individual.

Duley was questioned "on and off" Monday afternoon and was expected to be booked at the jail sometime in the evening, the sheriff said.

The boys' father, who doesn't live at the same residence as the children, has been interviewed by investigators, Williams said. The sheriff said he didn't know the father's whereabouts at the time of the incident.

Duley has a third child, a 5-year-old daughter, who was at the home of her maternal grandmother, where Duley lived with her children, he said.

The incident has similarities to a 1994 case, also in South Carolina. The bodies of Michael Daniel Smith, 3, and 14-month-old Alexander Tyler Smith were found in their mother's car, still strapped into their car seats, in John D. Long Lake in Union, South Carolina. Their mother, Susan Smith, was convicted on two counts of murder, but jurors opted to spare her the death penalty and she was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.

The case inflamed racial tensions in Union, because Susan Smith claimed at first she had been carjacked by an African-American man. She stuck to that story for nine days, issuing tearful pleas for her sons' return on national media outlets, before confessing to authorities. Prosecutors alleged she killed her children after being rejected by a man she was dating who did not want children.

From: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/17/south.carolina.children.deaths/index.html?iref=NS1#fbid=O_LyZpCfUD8&wom=false