April Sadler, mother of Heaven and Neveah, said the girls were inseparable and loved to go fishing.
A Navarro County man is believed to have fatally shot his twin daughters Thursday before killing himself, the sheriff's department says.
According to a statement from Navarro County Sheriff Elmer Tanner, deputies were dispatched to a welfare call 18000 block of Northwest 3360, in the Brushie Prairie community of Frost, after a woman said she heard a gunshot inside her home.
The woman called the sheriff's office and told dispatchers she'd left home with her children earlier that morning following a disagreement with her husband. She said her husband and his twin 12-year-old girls stayed behind at the home and that when she returned hours later she heard a single gunshot.
Deputies with the Navarro County Sheriff's Office soon arrived at the home and confirmed the man inside was armed and had apparently made statements of violence toward both his family and police should anyone attempt to take his children.
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Tanner identified the man as Larry Thompson and said his mother told them she'd just been inside the home speaking with both him and the twins.
The sheriff said that within minutes of Thompson's mother voluntarily leaving the residence that at least two gunshots were then heard inside the home.
Following the gunfire, a Navarro County crisis negotiation team was unsuccessful in reaching anyone inside the home and a tactical robot was used to assist SWAT in safely entering the residence. Deputies then found the bodies of Thompson and his 12-year-old twin daughters inside the home.
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Family has identified the girls as Heaven and Neveah Sadler.
"I mean, those were my babies. I miss them. I love them," said their mother April Sadler.
Sadler's cousin Stephanie Stephens described the sisters as inseparable.
"They were bright, also, funny, and they love to fish. I don't know what it is about fishing, but they like fishing and they like the water," said Stephens.
Sadler said the last time she saw her girls was in early 2020, but she'd been concerned for their well-being while with their father.
“I worried every day. I worried every day about my kids," she said.
The sisters' maternal family said they had to fight to get the girls' bodies released to them, so they could be buried near their homes in Waco.
"I wouldn't want this to happen to nobody at all, and I'll try my best to be strong and to be there for my girls and do what I have to do to get them to where they need to be buried and be peaceful," said Sadler.
Family is now raising money for funerals they say they hadn't prepared for.
A motive for the slayings has not been revealed by investigators.
The apparent double murder-suicide is being investigated by the Texas Rangers and the Navarro County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigation Division.
