Gilroy police: Mother admits to drowning 2-year-old daughter in bathtub
Gilroy police: Mother admits to drowning 2-year-old daughter in bathtub
A 35-year-old Gilroy woman is facing murder charges after police say she admitted to drowning her 2-year-old daughter in the bathtub. KTVU's Azenith Smith reports neighbors are shocked and say the woman moved in to the South Bay apartment complex two months ago.
GILROY, Calif. - 35-year-old Marcie Montelongo, a mother from Gilroy, is facing murder charges Monday night accused of killing her two-year-old daughter. Police said the mother admitted to authorities she drowned her daughter in the bathtub of their home. The mother lived at the Vineyards Apartment Complex on Westwood Drive. Neighbors said she moved in two months ago.
Leon and Julie Clinton suspected nothing out of the ordinary from their next door neighbor who they said often kept to herself. At times, they'd hear a child playing behind closed doors. They said they were shocked when they saw the downstairs unit covered in crime tape Sunday morning.
“It was horrible when I saw all that yellow tape, it was awful,” said Julie Clinton of Gilroy.
“Obviously we were shook, we are shook, it's demonic,” said Leon Clinton of Gilroy.
Police said at 11:30 a.m. they received a 911 call from a woman who said she drowned her two-year-old daughter in the bathtub. When officers arrived to the home, they found a lifeless child. The child was rushed to St. Louise Regional Hospital where she died.
Police later found Montelongo less than a mile away near the intersection of Miller Avenue and First Street where she confessed to the killing.
Neighbors are still wrapping their head around how this death could happen.
“This is the nicest community that I have lived in personally, when you live in a nice gated community you think that can't happen here,” said Jane Tovar of Gilroy.
If the allegations are true, many of them are hoping the mother gets help.
“Normally when you have neighbors you try to get to know them,” said Leon Clinton. “I think a common thing you will hear if you talk to other folks she did not make contact, she was offset in many ways.”
The coroner's office has not yet released the identity of the two-year-old girl. Montelongo is currently booked at San Jose’s Main Jail. She is due in court this Wednesday.