SILVERDALE, Wash. — A Kitsap County mother is in jail and charged with two counts of second-degree murder. She’s accused of killing her own children, 18-year-old twins with autism.
The Kitsap County coroner identified the twins on Tuesday as Chelsea Hill and Connor Hill of Silverdale but said the cause of death would require a toxicology report.
The sheriff’s office stated the investigation started last Thursday after the mother and suspect, 55-year-old Sherrie Lynn Hill, checked herself into Saint Michael Medical Center, saying she was suicidal. Then she told a social worker at the hospital that her two children were dead at home.
“She made some statements to the effect that she was having some mental health issues and kind of lost track of time. She thought maybe her kids had died due to negligence on her part. In fact, she specifically thought that she had starved them or had forgotten to feed them,” said Sgt. Ken Dickinson with the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office.
The crime scene was in the 2900 block of Mountain View Road in Silverdale. Inside the home, detectives found the twins in an “advanced state of decomposition” in their bedroom.
Court documents indicated Sherrie Hill told investigators, “I can’t believe I let this happen.” She told investigators that the twins were “nonverbal autistic.”
According to the documents, Hill reported she had been “in a suicidal cycle.” She “claimed she lost track of days and neglected them” and “could not recall the last time she provided food or water to them.”
Neighbors said they used to see the twins out every day, but not recently.
“I hadn’t seen the kids outside in at least a month,” said Bob Burris, who lives across the street. He said the twins were about 5 feet, 5 inches tall. And the last time he saw them, they were looking thin. “I don’t think they weighed 100 pounds,” he said.
But he had no idea how grim things were inside.
“If you don’t want your children, allow them to go somewhere they can be cared for right,” Burris said. “Those kids, they didn’t deserve to die that way. … They were good kids,” he said.
Now there is a memorial out for the twins on the front lawn.
The Kitsap County coroner said it was difficult to tell whether the twins were emaciated — or even when they died. The cause of death will need to come from a toxicology report, which could take months before results come in.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Dickinson said. “Longtime veterans here — many of them told me that was probably one of the worst scenes they’d been involved in,” he said.
The sheriff’s office also posted about the incident on Facebook and stated: “Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to call Detective Eric Adams at (360) 337-4998 or Detective Dave Meyer at (360) 337-5617.”