[There seems to be an immigration issue buried in this story somewhere.]

CARBONDALE - A Carbondale woman told police she mixed an entire box of rat poison into smoothies for herself and her two daughters.
Thirty-two-year-old Maria Alvarado-Gomez told police through an interpreter that she "would rather the children be dead than alive in Mexico," where she said the girls' father wanted to take them.

Police say Alvarado-Gomez told them, through an interpreter, that she thought the father of the girls was going to take the children to Mexico and that is why she tried to kill their daughters.

According to court documents-- this happened on June 30, but it didn't come to light until the next day, when Alvarado-Gomez went to a doctor's appointment and reported what she had done. Alvarado-Gomez was arrested on Wednesday.

The girls had complained to their mother about the taste of the smoothies, but she told them she had put vitamins in it. The mother also drank a poisoned smoothie and, like one of her daughters, also threw up. She said she had intended to kill herself and her two girls. A friend told investigators that Alvarado-Gomez had been depressed recently.

The two girls were taken to the hospital where they were treated and later released to the care of their father. Alvarado-Gomez said she got the idea of using rat poison from a television show.

The father of the girls, Martin Gonzalez, tells 9NEWS that his wife had been undergoing psychiatric treatment for several months. He also said, despite what his wife believed, he had no intention of taking their daughters to Mexico.

"The girls are fine. They're playing right now," Gonzalez said over the phone. "I just want people to withhold their judgement [of Alvarado-Gomez], because she is mentally ill."

When investigators searched the home and found an empty container of rat poison. Police arrested Alvarado-Gomez on two counts of first-degree attempted murder.

http://www.9news.com/story/news/crim...hies/12201385/