Bolivian mother hangs children after taping their goodbyes

LA PAZ - A 25-year-old Bolivian woman hanged her three children after making them record goodbye messages to their father on video, police reported Thursday (Aug 16).

The woman hanged her one-year-old baby, and her two other children aged four and seven, late Tuesday (Aug 14) after a series of arguments with her husband, state prosecutor Oscar Vera told Los Tiempos newspaper.

Police said the mother was being treated in hospital after taking poison.

Regional police chief Colonel Johnny Corrales said the woman had become distraught over her husband's drinking, "which is why she decided to hang her children and then tried to commit suicide."

"We know that there is a video where the children say goodbye to their dad," said Vera, a prosecutor in the central city of Cochabamba, where the tragedy unfolded.

A police forensic report said the children died of "mechanical strangulation." The mother, who left a letter alleging mistreatment by her husband, was being treated in intensive care and unable to give statements to the police.

Police said they had placed the father under preventive arrest.

Bolivia's public prosecutor's office recently reported 37 cases of infanticide during the first six months of the year.