Sheriff: SC mom killed kids, dumped car in river

RANGEBURG, S.C. — Broke, jobless and berated by her mother for her failings, Shaquan Duley killed her young sons, then strapped their lifeless bodies into their car seats before rolling the vehicle into a South Carolina river in a desperate cover-up attempt, authorities said.

On Wednesday, the 29-year-old mother was expected to appear before an Orangeburg County judge for an arraignment hearing on two murder charges.

Duley's attorney, Carl B. Grant, said Wednesday morning he hasn't had the opportunity to review any of the evidence against her.

"We want everybody to keep an open mind and to understand that they don't know the whole story," said Grant, who would not say what he discussed in his first talk with his client.

Investigators were not convinced when Duley said her sons, ages 2 years and 18 months, drowned after her car plunged into a river. She ultimately confessed to killing the toddlers, they say — not by dumping them in the water but by suffocating them earlier with her own hands.

"She truly felt, 'If I don't have these toddlers, I can be free,'" Orangeburg County Sheriff Larry Williams said at a news conference Tuesday. "I think she was fed up with her mother telling her she couldn't take care of the children, or she wasn't taking care of the children and just wanted to be free."

Coroner Samuetta Marshall told several media outlets Tuesday the older boy had defensive wounds that suggested he had been in a struggle.

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