Father is arrested for killing his son, three, and daughter, five, amid bitter divorce as distraught wife posts tribute 'Heaven has gained two beautiful angels'
The fugitive father of two young children found dead in his eastern Nebraska home, where they had been staying for a court-ordered visitation with him amid a custody battle with his estranged wife, has been arrested more than 1,600 miles west in California.
Police in Bellevue, south of Omaha, said 5-year-old Emily Price and 3-year-old Theodore Price were found dead Sunday morning in 35-year-old Adam Price’s home, but he wasn’t there when the children were found.
Investigators have not disclosed how the brother and sister died, but said the deaths were being investigated as homicides.
Adam Price, 35 (left), is suspected of causing the deaths of his two children, 5-year-old Emily and 3-year-old Theodore (pictured right with their mother), amid a bitter custody battle
Mary Nielsen (right) described her estranged husband (left) as 'abusive, controlling and manipulative'
The children's grieving mother, Mary Nielsen, wrote in a Facebook post: 'I’m so sorry to see you two go. You did not deserve this and I love you so very much. I would fight a thousand fights to have you back again. Heaven gained two beautiful angels and I hope great grandpa was at the gates to greet you. You were the only reasons I survived everything I did and the only reason I am alive. I love you. Til we meet again my sweet babies.'
Adam Price was arrested on Sunday evening in Pacifica, near San Francisco, and he awaits extradition to Nebraska. He was expected to appear in court on Monday afternoon, but the hearing was delayed by a day.
He faces two counts of felony child abuse resulting in death.
Police found Price and Nielsen's two children dead inside his Bellevue, Nebraska, home on Sunday morning
Nielsen and Price are going through a divorce, and their children had been staying with their father for a weeklong court-ordered visitation
Nielsen told reporters that she and Adam are in the process of getting divorced and that the children were at their father’s home for a weeklong court-ordered visitation.
Nielsen described her husband to Lincoln Journal Star as 'abusive, controlling and manipulative.'
The mother-of-two, who had moved to Illinois with the children, called police more than once and went on social media to plead for information on her children’s whereabouts after not hearing from them since Thursday.
Nielsen said her estranged husband was under court order to provide her daily communication with the children during his visits.
Nielsen last heard from her children on Thursday. After failing to reach them, she asked police twice to perform welfare check, but officers left both times when no one opened the door
Nielsen described Emily, pictured as a toddler on her dad's lap. as exceptionally smart and Theodore (seen before birth in ultrasound scans) as a typical little boy who liked playing with superheroes
Bellevue police twice went to Adam Price’s home in the 2700 block of Alberta Avenue — at 10pm on Saturday and at 9am on Sunday — at Nielsen’s request to check on the children, but left when no one answered the door.
Bellevue police spokesman Capt. Andy Jashinske said in a news release that officers didn’t have sufficient reason to force an entry into the home.
A friend of Nielsen’s went to Price’s home around 11am Sunday at her request and went inside after finding the door unlocked. The friend called police after finding the children’s lifeless bodies.
Nielsen told the Omaha World-Herald that her children had been 'happy, sweet, loving,' and described Emily as exceptionally smart and Theodore as a typical little boy who liked playing with superheroes.
'I wish I could hold you one more time and tell you how much I love you,' she said in a Facebook post Monday. 'Rest easy, my sweet babies.'
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