Russian Adoptee, Sonya Spoon, Arrested for Suffocating her Two Toddlers-Child Deaths UPDATED

“A 24-year-old mother has confessed to using plastic bags to kill her two young children at her Maryland home, according to police.

Sonya Spoon, 24, is being held without bond on two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Ayden Spoon, one, and Kayla Thompson, three.

A police mugshot released today shows her bizarrely smiling for the camera.

Paramedics were called to her home in Prince George’s County to treat two unconscious children at around 2am on Sunday.

The pair were both taken to Children’s Hospital in Washington, where they died a few hours later.

Police say the mother waved her Miranda rights today and gave a very detailed statement of what occurred when she suffocated them.

Today there were reports that the mother of two had been taken in for an emergency psychiatric evaluation last week – authorities are still trying to establish a motive.

Both fathers of the children have been notified of their deaths.

According to WTOP, court records show Spoon was involved in a lengthy custody battle with Lester Thompson, the father of her eldest child.

It stated records filed in Calvert County show Spoon demanded a paternity test in February which showed he was the biological father.

Court records also show Spoon refused to sign a custody agreement in May and then was then granted primary custody.

Thompson was ordered to child support and was told he could spend time with his daughter for a handful of days each month.

He wrote on Facebook: ‘Going to pick up my daughter today and I am so happy to spend some time with her.’

According to her Twitter profile, Spoon was adopted from Russia and brought to the United States when she was three-years-old. [Her Twitter account is https://twitter.com/sonyagirl90 ]

She posted several photos of her children on the social networking site who she called ‘my world.’

Her last post on August 20 was a photo of her with Kayla which she titled ‘My love.’

Neighbors in Chesapeake Beach said that Spoon had moved in with her parents recently and they said they have seen young children around the house.

Spoon’s parents, Gary and Paivi Spoon were not home at the time.   

Neighbors told the Washington Post that the Spoon’s were looking to renovate their home and were letting Sonya live their while work continued.

One neighbor who didn’t wish to be identified said to CBS Baltimore: ‘My two oldest woke me up when they noticed all the flashing lights from the police cars and ambulances that were out here,’ one neighbor who didn’t wish to be identified said to CBS Baltimore.

‘They kind of made a big commotion because they saw one of the children being brought out.’

A neighbor, Angela Pryor told the Washington Post that the killings had made her feel uncomfortable.

‘You feel so safe living right across from the police,’ she said. ‘This seems very strange for this neighborhood.’

Detective Bernard Jones underlined the fact that the murders were an isolated incident and there is ‘no need for the community to be afraid.’

‘We are all saddened by this tragic event. The loss of two children that were so young tugs at our hearts. As the police investigate this horrible case, our thoughts and prayers are with the family and the people of the Cheverly community as they try to reconcile how and why this happened,’ said Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III, in a statement Sunday.

Spoon will remain in police custody pending trial. ”

Mugshot smile of mother, 24, who suffocated her daughter, three, and son, one, with plastic bags during custody battle with father[Daily Mail 9/8/14 by James Nye and Jill Reilly]

“According to public records, the house is occupied by Gary Spoon and his wife, Paivi Spoon.

There was no answer at the neat, split-level dwelling, where a sign on a side door reads “Gary L Spoon, Certified Public Accountant.”

According to neighbors, the family has lived at the house for at least 20 years and Gary Spoon operates a business out of it. Paivi Spoon, according to an online biography, has had a career in government in her native Finland and the United States.

The couple have two grown children, a son and a daughter, according to the biography.

According to public records, the daughter is Sonya Spoon of Chesapeake Beach, Md. Those records gave her age as 26.

Neighbors in Chesapeake Beach said that Sonya Spoon and her children had been living in recent months with her parents in Cheverly.

Neighbors in Cheverly recalled seeing young children around the house recently.

“I’ve seen grandbabies in passing over there,” said Millicent Forbes, who has lived across the street from Gary and Paivi Spoon for two decades. “I think it must’ve been grandchildren.”

She said she saw Paivi Spoon talking to detectives Sunday morning after ambulances had left. Later, the house was quiet and seemingly empty, with traces of black fingerprint dust on the white front door.

Sonya Spoon’s former home in Chesapeake Beach is a small clapboard house with a yard cluttered with boxes and an old mattress just a few yards from the Chesapeake Bay. Neighbors said she and her children were a frequent presence on the street, even after they moved out of the house last spring.

According to two close neighbors, the Spoons were remodeling the house as a rental property. Sonya, as well as her parents, returned frequently to oversee the work, the neighbors said. The two neighbors spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

“The grandparents were very nice people. [Paivi Spoon] was very loving with the kids. She would take them walking up and down the boardwalk,” one neighbor said.

These neighbors thought that the elder Spoons had bought the property for their daughter but that she eventually chose not to live there. The family owns at least one other house in the neighborhood, the neighbors said, which they also used as a rental property.

Gary Spoon had recently told these neighbors that Sonya was living with them at their home in Cheverly.

Paivi Spoon’s career has included stints in the Finnish Prime Minister’s Office, a Nordic governments council and the U.S. Air Force Reserve, according to her online biography. Locally, according to the town of Cheverly Planning Board Web site, she has served as a special assistant in the county executive’s office, has worked at the former county Department of Environmental Resources and has been a board member of the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority and “is a long-term member of the Cheverly Planning Board.”

Laila Riazi, a Cheverly Town Council member, said members weren’t commenting. “We just want to support the family and see what the family needs.”

Neighbors passing the Spoon house in Cheverly, where chimes from nearby churches sounded up and down the quiet, tree-lined street Sunday morning, expressed shock that a homicide could occur in the area.

Angela Pryor, 51, who lives just down the block from the Spoons, said the block is considered particularly quiet because it is adjacent to the small Cheverly town offices.

“You feel so safe living right across from the police,” she said. “This seems very strange for this neighborhood.””

Maryland mother charged with murder in death of two toddlers[The Hamilton Spectator 9/8/14 by Michelle Boorstein, Martin Weil and Julie Zauzmer]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

 

Update: “A Prince George’s County grand jury has indicted a woman on charges of suffocating her two toddlers in their Cheverly home.

The indictment announced Thursday charges 24-year-old Sonya Spoon with two counts of murder in the deaths of 1-year-old Ayden and 3-year-old Kayla.

The children were found unconscious on Sept. 7 with plastic bags and duct tape around their heads. They were pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Spoon also is charged with assault and child abuse.

Spoon had been taken to a state psychiatric facility following her arrest but is now in the custody of the Department of Corrections.

Spoon’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment Friday.”

Maryland Mom Indicted In Children’s Deaths[CBS Baltimore 10/31/14 by Associated Press]

Update 2: A search of the Maryland court system shows that Sonya had a moot trial on 4/17/15. Good Cause was to continue the case beyond the 180 day requirement.A Reset 10/2/15 for Motions before Judge Martin. Reset 11/2/15 (3days) before Judge Martin for trial.”

Update 3: “A 26-year-old mother who admitted to suffocating her two young children has been sentenced to 45 years in prison. 

Sonya Spoon apologized for her actions in court on Wednesday as the sentence was handed down.

‘It wasn’t my initial intent and I didn’t do it maliciously,’ the Maryland woman said. ‘I deeply regret my actions.’

She was arrested on September 7, 2014, after admitting to police at the scene that she suffocated her children Ayden Spoon, one, and Kayla Thompson, three.

Paramedics were called to the home of Spoon’s parents at …in Prince George’s County, where she had been living with Ayden and Kayla, to treat two unconscious children at around 2am on September 7, 2014.

Paivi Spoon, the children’s grandmother, found Ayden and Kayla unconscious with plastic bags and duct tape around their heads, police said.

Spoon suffocated her two young kids by wrapping their heads in plastic bags and then sealing them in with duct tape<

The pair were both taken to Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, where they died a few hours later.

Six days before the murders, Spoon, then 24, had been taken in for an emergency psychiatric evaluation after her mother called police and told them her daughter had threatened to kill herself and Kayla.

Following the evaluation, Spoon was released and allowed back home with her two children.

Court records show Spoon was involved in a lengthy custody battle with Lester Thompson, the father of her eldest child.

Records filed in Calvert County show Spoon demanded a paternity test in February which showed Thompson was the biological father.

Court records also show Spoon refused to sign a custody agreement in May 2014 and then was then granted primary custody.

Thompson was ordered to pay child support and was told he could spend time with his daughter for a handful of days each month.

He wrote on Facebook: ‘Going to pick up my daughter today and I am so happy to spend some time with her.’

According to her Twitter profile, Spoon was adopted from Russia and brought to the United States when she was three-years-old.

She posted several photos of her children on the social networking site who she called ‘my world.’

Her last post on August 20, 2014, was a photo of her with Kayla which she titled ‘My love’.

Neighbors in Chesapeake Beach said that Spoon had moved in with her parents recently and they said they have seen young children around the house.

Spoon pleaded guilty to killing her two kids in March.

During the sentencing phase of the trial, a doctor testified on Spoon’s behalf, saying she suffered a traumatic train injury and had severe depression brought on by the custody battle over Kayla.

In his sentencing, Prince George’s Count Circuit Court Judge Lawrence V. Hill said ‘that’s not a defense or excuse for what happened that day’.    ”
Mom, 26, who suffocated her one-year-old son and three-year-old daughter is sentenced to 45 years in prison

[Daily Mail 6/7/17 by Ashley Coleman]