Jane Hopkins killed her two kids and committed suicide, her twin sister had tried the same thing in the past but the warnings came too late – Evil Twins examines the case on ID.
July, 1997, in a wealthy suburb of Dallas and 41-year-old Emily Jane Hopkins was found dead in her house, along with her two children. She’d slashed the throats of her 9-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, before killing herself in the bathtub.
The day before Hopkins had asked a neighbor to give her ex-husband, Clayton Elliot, a photo album with pictures of the family in it. He was the one who found his son’s body in the kitchen when he arrived for a visit. Police then found the other two bodies upstairs.
Neighbors described the tragic evening when Elliot found the bodies of his children, with him wailing and screaming after coming across a scene that police described as bloody and brutal.
Hopkins had a twin sister, Jean, who also had mental illness and who’d previously tried to commit suicide and poison her children. It was her husband who’d warned Elliot that he should look into removing the children from their mother, especially as her behaviour became more erratic.
Press coverage from the time is limited but you can read more on this fascinating Reddit thread.
Evil Twins – Folie Aux Deux airs at 1:00 PM on Investigation Discovery.