Shaniece Willingham (Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office).
A Florida mother allegedly attempted to drown herself and her three children in the deep end of a community pool — binding them all together and throwing them into the water — in what prosecutors describe as an effort “to end her life and kill her children at the same time.”
Shaniece Willingham, aged 24, is facing charges after she purportedly made the attempted filicide early on Wednesday morning, following a “last goodbye” message to friends and family via an Instagram livestream, as noted in court documents. Her children are ages 3, 2, and 8 months.
Court documents state, “The defendant loaded her children in a wagon and walked them to the community pool while posting a live story on her Instagram page.”
The documents further allege, “In the video, the defendant was telling everybody this was her ‘last goodbye, and she could not take it anymore.’ [Willingham] also expressed ‘she loved her kids so much, but she could not leave them behind because no one can take care of them, and they would be safe with God.'”
Relatives reportedly hurried to a pool on Sacramento Street in Valrico after seeing her social media broadcast, which led prosecutors to say that the video prompted the family’s quick response. Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputies responded at approximately 1:30 a.m. and discovered Willingham and her children still alive after being rescued from the pool by family members, according to a motion for pretrial detention.
Prosecutors explain that Willingham had an altercation with her mother earlier that evening and was reportedly upset because the children’s father refused to collect her and their kids after she was asked to leave her mother’s home.
“[The father] said he doesn’t give a f— and he ‘ain’t doing anything,'” the motion for pretrial detention alleges. “At this point, the defendant loaded her children in a wagon and walked them to the community pool.”
Before tying her children up, Willingham allegedly called her mother on FaceTime and “told her that she loved her,” according to prosecutors. “The defendant then turned the camera around to show her mother that she was at the pool,” the detention motion says.
“The defendant sat on the side of the pool and used a rope to tie her and her children together so they could all be bound together after entering the pool,” the document alleges, noting how “neither the defendant nor any of the three victims” knew how to swim.
“[Willingham] pushed all three children and herself into the pool in an attempt to kill herself and her children,” prosecutors said. “The defendant and her children were located in the deep end of the pool, which was marked on the side as 6 feet deep.”
While speaking to cops after the incident, Willingham allegedly admitted to “wanting to end her life and kill her children at the same time,” according to prosecutors. She confessed to using a rope that had been attached to a “Life ring” — described by prosecutors as a “lifesaving flotation device in the pool area” — to tie her and her children to her “so they could all drown together.”
Willingham is facing multiple charges, including attempted murder, and was ordered to be held Thursday without bond. She has a pretrial detention hearing scheduled for Sept 29.
“This incident is nothing short of horrific,” said Sheriff Chad Chronister in a statement Thursday. “The fear and betrayal these innocent children must have felt, at the hands of the one person meant to love, care for, and protect them, is unimaginable,” Chronister blasted. “This decision was not a cry for help, it was a deliberate act of cruelty. … There is no excuse, no justification. These children were failed by their own mother, and it is only by the quick actions of their family that they are alive today.”
