( Sept. 22) -- An Indianapolis woman who's been charged in the deaths of her two young children allegedly locked her five kids in a closet for 10 hours before the two perished.That's according to a police report released Tuesday that accuses Edyan Farah, 28, of dragging a bed up against the closet to block it shut, then leaving to visit a neighbor. Investigators are awaiting results of a toxicology report, but believe the two children -- a 5-year-old girl and her 3-year-old brother -- died Sunday of asphyxiation. Details were reported by several news agencies.
The children were trapped in a closet about 6 feet by 18 inches for more than 10 hours, and one of the surviving siblings told police they'd been crammed in there before, WRTV channel 6 TV station reported.
Lt. Jeff Duhamell said it was the worst case he's seen in 28 years with the Indianapolis police force. "The bottom line is, animals are treated better than that," he told the station. 
The police report also alleges that Farah failed to call 911 after she arrived home and discovered her children's lifeless bodies, and tried to prevent neighbors and relatives from doing so.
Her uncle, Mohammad Hersi, peered into the apartment and "saw what appeared to him as a deceased child laying on the couch," the report stated, according to WRTV. When he tried to call police, "Farah grabbed the phone from Mohammad Hersi and threw it," it said. Another friend was quoted as saying Farah wouldn't let anyone into the apartment.
"She didn't look normal. She was not the woman we knew," Hersi told The Indianapolis Star.
The children were in rigor mortis when paramedics arrived.
Farah, a Somali immigrant, will appear in an Indianapolis court today to be advised of her rights, a spokeswoman for the Marion County prosecutor's office, Susan Decker, told The Associated Press. She was charged Monday with two preliminary counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in death, but prosecutors have asked for 72 more hours to prepare formal charges. Farah remains jailed on a $200,000 bond.
The remaining three children, whom police and neighbors described as looking malnourished, have been transferred to foster care, Duhamell said.
The police report also alleges that Farah failed to call 911 after she arrived home and discovered her children's lifeless bodies, and tried to prevent neighbors and relatives from doing so.Her uncle, Mohammad Hersi, peered into the apartment and "saw what appeared to him as a deceased child laying on the couch," the report stated, according to WRTV. When he tried to call police, "Farah grabbed the phone from Mohammad Hersi and threw it," it said. Another friend was quoted as saying Farah wouldn't let anyone into the apartment.
"She didn't look normal. She was not the woman we knew," Hersi told The Indianapolis Star.
The children were in rigor mortis when paramedics arrived.
Farah, a Somali immigrant, will appear in an Indianapolis court today to be advised of her rights, a spokeswoman for the Marion County prosecutor's office, Susan Decker, told The Associated Press. She was charged Monday with two preliminary counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in death, but prosecutors have asked for 72 more hours to prepare formal charges. Farah remains jailed on a $200,000 bond.
The remaining three children, whom police and neighbors described as looking malnourished, have been transferred to foster care, Duhamell said.
Relatives told the AP that Farah's family had emigrated to the U.S. from Somalia about a decade ago. Her husband, Burhan Hassan, traveled back home to Somalia a few weeks ago to visit his parents, and was still there when his children were discovered dead last weekend, the Star reported. Hassan is now en route back to America.
Meanwhile, neighbors of the Farah family at their two-story apartment complex said they were shocked by the deaths.
"The kids were always at the window waving and saying 'Hi' when you walked by. They were never out playing, but they always seemed happy," neighbor Nicole Felt told WRTV. "My heart goes out to those kids -- the two that passed, certainly, and the three that now have to live with what happened."
Meanwhile, neighbors of the Farah family at their two-story apartment complex said they were shocked by the deaths."The kids were always at the window waving and saying 'Hi' when you walked by. They were never out playing, but they always seemed happy," neighbor Nicole Felt told WRTV. "My heart goes out to those kids -- the two that passed, certainly, and the three that now have to live with what happened."
