Destiny Hogan and Daysha Hogan id as sisters found dead in Lauderdale canal as their mother Tinessa Hogan is eyed as possible murder suspect.
Authorities have identified the two young girls found dead hours apart at a Florida canal on Tuesday, with the girls’ mother being verified as a ‘possible person of interest’ in their deaths.
Lauderhill Police identified the sisters as 9-year-old Destiny Hogan and 7-year-old Daysha Hogan. They were last seen with their mother, 34-year-old Tinessa Hogan, late Monday afternoon near the canal, he said.
Residents said the woman who lives there with her children had been acting erratically, swimming in the canal and asking to baptize kids in the neighborhood on Monday, WPTV reported.
‘It looked like she was having some emotional problems and couldn’t express it, she was just in her back during the day,’ said one neighbor who didn’t want to be identified according to NBCMiami. ‘I said ‘Are you ok?’ She started swimming towards me and she went back into the house and disappeared.’
Investigators said their causes of death have not yet been determined, but they are treating the case as a homicide. The girls and their mother were last seen together around 5 p.m. Monday, police said.
No known motive
Lauderhill Police Lt Mike Bigwood speaking to press on Wednesday declined to say whether the sister’s mother was in custody. He said she was not under arrest, that investigators knew where she was, that she was ‘not home’ and ‘not out in the community.’ While he refused to give a yes or no answer to the question of ‘in custody,’ he said that ‘in custody is not under arrest.’
‘The mother has not been questioned,’ Bigwood said during Wednesday’s press conference.
Bigwood declined to speculate on what may have potentially led to the girl’s mother killing her two daughters.
Notice of the two young girl’s demise came after the ‘badly decomposing’ body of the first girl was found face down in a canal shortly after noon on Tuesday. Several hours later, the body of a second girl, the first girl’s sibling was found in the same canal.
Bigwood said the first body found was that of Destiny Hogan. Daysha Hogan’s body was found at 8:34 p.m. on Tuesday, he said.
Authorities said the girls did not have visible injuries. An autopsy was performed, but Bigwood said investigators were not ready to release cause and manner of death.
He said investigators have been speaking with members of the family outside Broward County and asked that residents in the neighborhood with information about the girls and their mother contact them.
Father estranged
The girls’ father, he said, has been estranged from the family for most of the children’s lives and was not under suspicion.
Police are asking anyone who knows the family or children to contact them.
‘We’re hoping that the community reaches out and helps us put some context to how this may have happened,’ Bigwood said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.
