New Jersey mother worked in a daycare, the same day she killed children for “religious reasons”: police

The New Jersey mother accused of drowning her young daughters had worked at a daycare earlier that day and told police she murdered her children for “religious reasons,” authorities said.

Naomi Elkins, 27, was arrested at her Lakewood home Tuesday afternoon shortly after emergency responders determined her one- and three-year-old daughters were dead.

During an interview with police, Elkins stated that she had been working at a Giggles daycare that day, according to arrest documents obtained by The Post.

Elkins’ daughters attended the daycare while she worked there, and they used a car service to get to and from the location, the suspect said.

When Elkins returned home with the children, “she believed she had to kill the children for religious reasons,” the criminal complaint states.

Elkins told police that she stabbed one of her daughters, causing her “minor injuries” before running a bath.

She then allegedly took one of the children into the bathroom and held him under water for two to three minutes.

At that point, Elkins said, the other child ran screaming into the second bathroom.

Elkins followed the girl and ran a bath in the room, placed the child in it and held her under water.

“She said she counted to 50 several times to make sure she kept her underwater long enough,” the criminal complaint states.

Elkins told police she then realized she had done something wrong and called Hatzolah Medical Services and stated that she had hurt her children.

Elkins initially contacted Hatzolah’s Brooklyn office but eventually contacted the Lakewood office, the document says.

According to Elkins, she left the family home to direct rescue workers to her children, both of whom were found naked and wet.

Hatzolah volunteers alerted Lakewood police to the scene, where both children were pronounced dead shortly after 5 p.m.

One of the children was found with a “deep cut” “in the middle of her abdomen and a superficial wound on the left side of her back,” the police document says.

Officers later found a serrated knife with a red handle in the hallway sink.

The owner of the Lakewood home, Avigdor Wentraud, and his children were in the upstairs main portion of the home at the time of the murders, authorities said.

Weintraub, 40, told police that he had rented the basement apartment of the house to Elkins and her husband Edward Wiseman (26).

It was not immediately clear where Wiseman was at the time of the incident. Elkins told police she had been struggling with bad feelings since May 24 when her husband left for a business trip.

During her interview with police, Elkins “stated that she knew that killing her children was illegal and that her behavior was wrong,” the report said.

Detective Alex Bromley of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit assigned Elkins to write a letter to the children.

Elkins’ letter – in which he mentioned “killing her children” – was subsequently seized as evidence.

NJ.com reported that Elkins appeared virtually at a brief hearing Wednesday afternoon.

The footage showed that she was being held in the medical wing of the Ocean County Correctional Facility, although the reason for this was unclear, the outlet reported.

Elkins did not comment during the hearing. She will remain in jail until her first official court appearance, which is scheduled for Monday morning.

The suspect’s attorney, Mitchell Anselm – a well-known southern New Jersey attorney who defended Bruce Springsteen in a drunken driving charge – did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Elkins’ arrest sent shockwaves through Lakewood, which has a large Orthodox Jewish community, the Asbury Park Press reported.

“Everyone is in absolute shock right now,” Herschel Herskowitz, a local activist, told the outlet.

“Her family is well known in the community,” he said of Elkins. “As big as Lakewood is, it’s still a small town. When something like this happens, people just go into their shells and don’t talk about it.”

“I think people are in shock. I don’t think our community has ever dealt with a tragedy of this magnitude before,” added Shlomo Schorr, director of legislative affairs for Agudah Israel in New Jersey.

Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg, spokesman for the Lakewood Vaad, a group of Orthodox residents and business owners, said the killings had “shaken our collective being to the core.”

“Now begins the time of prayer, support and healing. May the souls of our dear departed children be blessed with the eternal glory of the Almighty as we pray for the healing and well-being of their family and the larger family of the Lakewood community,” he said.