Hillsborough mother pleads not guilty to strangling boys, 5 and 7

🚨 A Hillsborough mother has pleaded not guilty to double murder charges in the deaths of her two young sons.
📞 Police say the father called 911 after making the grim discovery after work.
🏫 The boys’ school community is mourning an “unfathomable loss,” as investigators detail disturbing evidence.

HILLSBOROUGH — A Somerset County mother accused of killing her two young sons this month remains in jail after pleading not guilty on Tuesday to double murder charges.

Last week, 35-year-old Priyatharsini Natarajan’s husband told investigators that his wife had confessed to killing their 5- and 7-year-old boys, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed by investigators.

Husband told police she confessed to killing children

Shortly after he returned home from work before 7 p.m. Jan. 13, the man called 911 from the family’s Hillsborough residence in the Brookhaven Loft apartment complex.

Police found the bodies of the two brothers in a bedroom.

Read More: Caneiro murder trial: Call of gunshots and security camera outage

Children found dead inside Hillsborough apartment

The young victims both appeared to have been strangled, with at least one of them showing signs of having been killed hours earlier, investigators said.

A handwritten-note addressed to the husband was also recovered from the residence on Shell Court.

Investigators found that Natarajan was in a “hyper state and made suicidal statements to patrol officers,” investigators said in an affidavit.

Community mourns loss of Sunnymead Elementary students

Hillsborough schools Superintendent Mike Volpe called the tragedy an “unfathomable loss” of the two young students, who both attended Sunnymead Elementary School.

“There are no words to adequately capture the weight of this tragedy, and our hearts are with the families and the entire Sunnymead community as they grieve,” Volpe said in a written statement last week. “Our priority remains the emotional health of our students and staff.”

Sunnymead Elementary serves about 530 students, from kindergarten through fourth grade, as one of six elementary schools in the large, suburban district.

Natarajan had no attorney listed as of Thursday. She is next due in court on Feb. 27.

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