OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas mom who tried to kill her three young children with medication was sentenced Tuesday to nearly 29 years in prison.
Therese Irine Roever, 39, was sentenced on three counts of attempted first-degree murder and criminal threat. She will have to register as a violent offender when she is released, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said.
Prosecutors said Roever’s ex-husband called police and emergency responders to her home on Feb. 19, 2018, after finding his children drugged and groggy.
When officers arrived, they found Roever lying on a bed with a 7-year-old who was not alert. Another 7-year-old was crying in a bathroom and a 5-year-old was seen getting up from a bed and stumbling to the ground, police said.
Officers found several pill bottles on the ledge of a bed, according to court documents.
Roever and her children were hospitalized and doctors said two of the children would have died if police hadn’t arrived when they did.
Roever lost custody of the children to her ex-husband after the two were divorced in 2016 but she was later granted unsupervised visitation.