Jury selection is underway in Dallas this week for the trial of a woman accused of killing her two daughters two years ago.
Madison McDonald walked into an Irving police station at about 10 p.m. on April 5, 2021, and told police she killed her two children, 1-year-old Lillian Mae McDonald and 6-year-old Archer Hammond.
McDonald, who was 30 at the time, called 911 from the police station lobby and told an operator that she drugged and smothered her daughters. When officers met her in the lobby, she claimed her kids were being abused and that she would do anything to protect them, including "eliminating them."
Video released by the Irving Police Department showed McDonald, in shorts, a sweatshirt, and a face mask, walking around the empty lobby for several minutes apparently looking for a phone or a police officer. Nearly 20 minutes after she arrived, three officers can be seen entering the lobby to talk with McDonald.
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Officers were dispatched to the woman's home on the 700 block of Cowboys Parkway and confirmed that both of the children were deceased.
"This is obviously a horrific incident where two children were murdered and we may not ever know the why. Right? Because there's not ever going to be a definition or a reason that would ever justify the murder of two small children," said Robert Reeves, with the Irving Police Department, in 2021.
A close friend of the woman, who chose McDonald to be the godmother to her children, told NBC 5 that there's more to the story and that her children were her world.
McDonald is now facing two charges of capital murder. Adults convicted of capital murder in Texas face either life in prison without parole or the death penalty.
