2 Dead After Mom Locks Kids in Closet

(Indianapolis, Indiana) A 28-year-old local mother and immigrant from Somalia, Ebyan Farah, faces charges of neglect and confinement stemming from alleged incidents of locking her children in a closet without food and water when she left the home.

The confinement reportedly resulted in the deaths of two youngsters, ages 3 and 4.

Authorities have said Farah told police she "was not in her right mind" when she allegedly placed her children in a 6-foot by 1 1/2-foot upstairs closet at Manchester Village Apartments about 6 a.m. Sunday. Court documents say Farah put a bed frame or mattress against the closet door to keep the children from leaving while she went to visit a friend for the day.

Seven-year-old Muntaaz Farah Hassan told investigators her mother often put children in the closet as punishment or when she needed to cook, according to a police affidavit. The girl said she sometimes helped her mother get the children in the closet when they got into trouble.

The girl said she had a hard time breathing in the hot, dark closet Sunday and that no food and water had been left for her and three of her four siblings, according to the affidavit.

Muntaaz said she watched as her mother carried her dead siblings away.

Tip: slwlion