Mother to be booked on suspicion of murder in deaths of children

Police will book an Arizona woman on suspicion of murder after finding her two children dead in a Santa Ana hotel room Saturday morning, authorities said.

The woman, whose last known address is in Scottsdale, Ariz., rammed her car into steel poles on Harbor Boulevard in Costa Mesa in an apparent suicide attempt, police said.

After rescue workers arrived, she mentioned the two dead children, who were found shortly afterward in a third-floor room of a Hampton Inn & Suites in nearby Santa Ana, police said.

Investigators were processing the scene Saturday night.

“The search warrant for the hotel room just got here,” said Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna.

The woman was treated at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach and turned over to police custody.

Bertagna said the woman is being held at the Santa Ana Police Department and will be booked into the city jail.

He did not say how the children were killed and said detectives had not yet confirmed their ages. He said he was not releasing the woman’s identity because the victims’ next of kin had not yet been notified.

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Twitter: @LATChrisGoffard

christopher.goffard@latimes.com