Grim new details have emerged about a New Jersey woman who allegedly murdered her two young children inside her car earlier this month after eating lunch at a popular, regional gas station.
The information comes from a 911 call obtained by MyCentralJersey. Yuhwei Chou, 36, was charged with two counts of murder in the first degree on Tuesday, Nov. 9 over the confirmed suffocation deaths of her 7-year-old daughter Samantha Ross and 11-month-old son Paul Ross.
According to the outlet, a man from Hillsborough made the unfortunate discovery and immediately dialed for help. Previous reporting indicates he was a tow truck driver who stopped to render assistance when he saw the grey Toyota Corolla stuck in a ditch mid-morning that day and stopped to render aid in line with his expertise.
“We need a cop and medical personnel,” he calmly told dispatchers. “Send someone immediately as fast as possible.”
“There is a baby in the backseat of the car with duct tape on its face,” he continued. “Get an EMT please, immediately. The baby’s not responsive. Hurry, please hurry.”
By the time first responders arrived, the children were already dead. And Chou had somehow managed to constrain herself to the steering wheel with zip ties.
“I don’t think she’s in a good mental state,” the witness believed. “She tied herself to the steering wheel and she has duct tape around her head.”
When police did arrive, Chou allegedly said her children were dead and admitted she had been planning to kill them for roughly a week.
No motive for the slayings has been announced or speculated upon by as of yet. Recently released autopsy results subsequently determined the official cause of death for the sister and brother was asphyxia via airway obstruction and that the manner of their death was homicide.
The caller identified himself as a father with three children, and said that two other people had stopped, telling the dispatcher to “hurry.”
He then described the scene he found.
“I think she was trying to kill herself,” he told the dispatcher as his composure slowly wore down. “I think she killed the baby.”
Chou allegedly asked the man to remove the zip ties on her wrists.
The alleged killer is said to have described to police, in detail, her actions on the day of the murders. She allegedly said she first drove to a Wawa gas station for lunch and then to a True Value hardware store where she purchased the implements of the murders, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by MyCentralJersey.
The defendant allegedly used duct tape and zip ties to facilitate the murder of her two children before using her own hands to suffocate her children as they sat helpless inside the family’s car on Monday, Nov. 8 in the mid-afternoon, she allegedly told police, according to the affidavit.
During the six-minute call, the unnamed man said Chou was alive and awake–but that the children didn’t seem to be.
Eventually, the man began to cry.
“And when I saw the duct tape, I said I don’t think this is very good,” he said through tears. “And I think she realized the baby is going to die.”
Chou was recently denied bail.
[image via Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office]
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