Source: CNN
Author: AP staff
CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) -- A mother arrested after the apparent bathtub drownings of her two young daughters was a domestic violence victim who had no documented history of neglecting her children.
A police officer leaves the family's home with a bag of evidence.
The father of the two girls, ages 4 and 2, said the woman called him at work Monday and said their children "are at peace," Cleveland police Lt. Thomas Stacho said.
He then went to the woman's apartment and pulled the girls from the water in the bathtub.
Stacho said the girls were placed on life support by a medical services crew and were pronounced dead at a hospital.
The girls' mother, Amber Hill, 22, was arrested at her apartment for questioning. No charges had been filed, and she remained jailed Tuesday.
Hill provided only her name, age and address, but would not answer further questions at the apartment, Stacho said. She was calm and showed no emotion when she was taken away by police, he said.
"At this point she's our only suspect," he said.
Hill, who neighbors said was studying to be a nursing assistant, had no record of abusing her children, said Jim McCafferty, director of the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services.
"We never had a call of any maltreatment of the children," McCafferty said Tuesday. "The kids were clean and well cared for. It's just a sad situation."
In July 2006, the girls' father, Jamie Cintron, pleaded no contest and was found guilty of domestic violence against Hill in Cleveland Municipal Court.
During an argument with Hill "he started knocking things over, then he said he was leaving with their children, he picked up a hammer and broke the TV with it, then he grabbed her by the neck and shoved her," a summons for his arrest said.
Cintron served 26 days in jail and the rest of his six-month sentence was suspended. He was placed on probation for 18 months and ordered to have no contact with Hill. He was permitted to see his children only if a third party was present.
In 2004, Cintron, 23, pleaded no contest and was found guilty of domestic violence against Hill. He was put on six months' probation.
The official cause of the girls' deaths is pending autopsies Tuesday, said Dr. Frank Miller, Cuyahoga County coroner. E-mail to a friend
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