Law&Crime Sidebar - Mom Who Shot 4 Kids Has 5th Child Missing: Police

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

Search warrants reveal chilling new details in the case of Oninda Romelus, accused of shooting her four children in Texas. Investigators found ammunition, multiple electronics, and dozens of Social Security and ID cards linked to potential fraud. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down the warrants and what they reveal about this shocking case.Guest: Dr. T. Anansi Wilson, Legal ScholarX/Youtube: @BlaQueerFlow IG:DrAnansiWilson BlueSky:DrAnansiWilson.bsky.socialTikTok:AnansiWWebsite: anansiwilsonphd.comPLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wonderry Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. It is impossible to make sense of a senseless tragedy like this, but we will do everything we can to seek justice for these children. A Texas woman is accused of gunning down her own children in a horrific act of violence. Now, somehow, two of the four victims survived. They're now in recovery as their mom. sits behind bars on a $14 million bond.

And as the investigation into Oninda Romulus widens, stranger and stranger details are coming out about what was allegedly going on inside her home. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Like I said, at this point, this is still an ongoing, however, what is most important is that our team is working on this. We've been burning the midnight oil on this ever since this.

oil on this ever since this dropped, right? So I can assure you we're looking into this and there is a lot of stuff that is not not able to be released at this point. Law enforcement in two Texas counties are trying to piece together what led to a mother allegedly shooting her four children inside of a car, killing the oldest, a 13-year-old boy and the youngest, a three-year-old little girl. Brazoria County authorities say 31-year-old Oninda Romulus herself called 911. This was just before 5 a.m. on Saturday, October 4th, from an oasis convenience store in Angleton. According to a criminal complaint that was later filed against Romulus, quote, affiant learned from the Brazoria County dispatch that a black female identified as Oninda Romulus had shot

her four juvenile children and was currently located at the convenience store. So this complaint goes on to explain the scene that this investigator came upon at the gas station where a white car was parked at a gas pump with the engine running, okay? A white sheet was covering a small child's body that was lying on the ground behind the vehicle. Affion observed a second white sheet covering a body that was on the passenger side of the car between the car and the gas pump. Affion observed the body was positioned with its body hanging halfway out of the front passenger door with legs in the vehicle and the upper torso and head on the ground. It's absolutely horrific. Now at a news conference, authority said that while the They believe that this shooting took place inside the car.

They don't know or it's unclear where the car was when that happened. According to the investigator, the store owner arrived, let the deputy look at the surveillance footage. The investigator wrote that they were able to see a woman, believed to be Romulus, get out of the white car, walk around to the gas pump. It reportedly appeared like she was talking on the phone at the time, so possibly already on the phone with 911, not entirely sure. Once she got gash, she was seen walking back to the driver's side, stops to look in the rear window before getting back into the driver's seat. Now, the first deputies on the scene, they tried to talk to Romulus, but when she started backing away from them and the car, that's when they detained her.

That is when they realized that there was a male slumped over in the front passenger seat. He was later identified as 13-year-old Ocario. They tried to render aid, but he was dead. He was dead from gunshot wounds. that is when they saw that there were three other children in the back seat, also sustaining gunshot wounds. And despite their best efforts, another child, three-year-old Amora, was pronounced dead. The two others, an eight-year-old, a nine-year-old, they were life-flighted to a hospital. Court documents indicate multiple guns were found with Romulus, whether they were on her person

or in the car, it wasn't specified. But according to the complaint, deputies had already Mirandized Romulus, so the investigator tried to talk to her to find out what happened here, but said she, quote, wasn't making any sense. And at that point, she was taken to jail. When the investigator got back to the sheriff's office, Romulus was escorted to an interview room. They wrote in the complaint that she appeared paranoid, didn't want to sit down, kept looking out the door of the interview room. But the investigator was finally able to build enough rapport with her to ask a few questions.

The complaint reads, during the interview, Affiant asked a Ninda Romulus why she called 911, and she stated that she couldn't talk about it. Afian then asked several more questions as to why she called 911 and she stated, instead of them doing it to me, I'm going to do it to them. Afian further asked, do what? Ninda Romulus stated, kill them all. At one point when Romulus was being questioned, she reportedly said that she didn't call 911, she called, quote, the devil.

Afian continued with the interview and asked her Ninda Romulus if she had any children. She stated, um, Afian further asked, how many children she has, and Oninda Romulus replied that she has four children naming them and stating their ages. Afian asked Oninda Romulus where her children were, and she stated they were with, quote, the devil. Afian then asked what she meant by that statement, and Oninda Romulus stated, they're dead. Afian asked Aninda Romulus what she meant by that statement. They're dead, and she stated, because you can't take me without me taking you. Ninda Romulus further stated that her children were dead to her.

So authorities, they charged her with two counts of murder, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and she was booked on a $14 million bond. It turns out, though, that Romulus's home was in Porter, Texas, and Montgomery County, so that's more than 60 miles away from where she was arrested, and we got our hands on the search warrants that were filed by Montgomery County investigators, and I will tell you, they provide more information about her. that we need to talk about. All right, so before we dive into all these details,

I want to welcome on a new guest here on Sidebar, Dr. Tiananasi Wilson, a nationally recognized legal scholar, commentator, law degree from Howard University, doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin, knows how to break down all of these complex criminal matters. Thank you so much for taking the time. And welcome to Sidebar. We really love having you.

Yeah, thank you for having you. Great thing in this conversation. Yeah, this is a tough case. I mean, the information we know so far is just chilling. chilling. It is so shocking a scene for law enforcement to respond to you, have four children, grizzly wounds, two of them already dead, two who could die if they didn't get immediate help. What is your initial reaction when looking at this? And what do you say to people, what is the number one priority when responding to a scene like this?

You know, my number one response was, oh, my God, the children, right? I looked at the, you know, the transcript and then Katta sees a little bit of the video, I guess, from the scene. And I'm just thinking, like, how does someone, what type of mental state must someone be in to allegedly do this to the children and then get out, drive to a gas station on the phone and start pumping gas, right, while some of the children are within the breath inch of their life? But in terms of the kind of preserving the crime scene for the police and for law enforcement, even for a defense attorney, right? The first thing you want to do here is check the car and see is anyone alive, right?

Can we get a medical expert out here to survey this scene? How do we get this woman to begin talking if she'll talk at all, right? Is she Mirandized? Are we going to be able to use what she's telling us, one, to preserve the crime scene for a prosecution and perhaps for a defense, but also making sure that we can get to the wounds and understand what has happened to these kids? Because clearly from the affidavit, it's not immediately clear that the children had been shot, or whether they're alive or dead.

So that'd be my first couple priorities there. By the way, you know why we're able to bring you stories like this? It's not only because of the amazing support that we get from all of you out there, but also from our incredible sponsor, Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm, a firm with over 1,000 attorneys. You know why they're so big? Because they win all the time. They have recovered over $25 billion for more than $500,000. In the past few months, a client in Florida received $12 million after the insurance company offered just $350,000. Out in Pennsylvania, a client was awarded $26 million. that is 40 times the insurer's $650,000 offer. There's another client in Pennsylvania that received $29 million after being offered only $500,000. And even if you think your case isn't worth millions of dollars, why not just start a claim and fight for what you deserve?

Morgan and Morgan makes it so simple. You can start a claim from your phone in just eight clicks. So if you're injured, you can easily start a claim at for the people.com slash LC Sidebar by clicking the link below or scanning the QR code on screen. You mentioned mental health. The investigator said at least twice in this affidavit that Romulus, quote, wasn't making sense, was acting paranoid.

When you read something like that, what do you make of it? Well, I mean, there's a lot more that needs to be done. So as a criminal defense attorney, my first thought is, one, is she going to be competent to stand trial in the future, right? But that determination is made at the kind of moment that we're getting ready to go to trial, not at the crime scene. But two, at that crime scene, is she just speaking gibberish? Is she acting?

Does she need mental health support? Because a lot of times you will have folks that are maybe just in shock. And I can't imagine, you know, allegedly shooting or even just being accused of shooting four of my children, killing two of them, that I would not be in shock. That I would not be saying anything, right? To an officer or to myself, to God, whoever I believe in, to my family. I'd also be interested in thinking about who she was on the phone with after she called the police. That'd be interesting to me. But in that moment, you know, we're going to want to get, have her have some type of evaluation because she could be leading you down a rabbit hole or, you know, it could just be that whatever she's saying is not helpful to the crime scene investigation or to the investigation of, you know, are there other children, which we kind of find out later.

There are two things to that, as I was reading it. One, you know, the idea of allegedly shooting your own children, there's got to be something there. So first thought I wondered, is she even on the phone with anybody, right? If you're thinking about delusion, I mean, was she even speaking to anybody? Let's put that there. But my understanding is in Texas, and I know this is an incredibly tough defense. I know that this doesn't always apply. But when you're dealing with a situation like this, I immediately looked it up. Texas has the insanity defense. And if you're talking about whether somebody appreciated the wrongfulness of their actions, and obviously we don't have all of the details yet, but is that something that may be

considered by a defense attorney when you're talking about such a heinous crime like this? And it may be difficult for a jury to accept how on earth could someone shoot children like this? There has to be something wrong. That's right. Well, I mean, I think in a situation like this, you always consider every defense, right? Because, again, just to remind our viewers, what we have right now is affidavits from the police. We have the police the side of the story. We don't have her side, really, yet.

I always tell my, when I was teaching law, I tell my students, look, when you read an affidavit, you read a crime scene report, you read a complaint. This is the worst case scenario for the client, right? This is, if all the worst things are true, that's what we're reading right now. So as a defense attorney, of course, you're going to want to consider that insanity defense. And it's not the best defense you can get. It's not the one you want to use. It's not to get out of jail free card.

Because if you use that, that does not mean you're not going to be punished. It means, right, in many cases, in Texas is a strange state. I've got to look a little bit close. I haven't been there in a minute. But it generally means across the country that you're going to be incarcerated and well held. It's not saying incarcerated, detained maybe. It's maybe a better word. until you reach sanity, right?

And then your punishment might change. So this isn't like you get an insanity defense and now you're out at your house, right, on medication or being checked up on unsupervised probation. No, you're still going to be held away from society, right? So that's something that we have to think about. But again, the insanity defenses, were they, again, were they able to appreciate

the wrongfulness of their act at the time? And we don't know that, right? But do they also understand that the thing that they're doing is criminal? That's another thing that we're going to think about. So she could say that, yeah, the devil, made me do it, that still might not meet the standard of insanity in Texas. So that's going to be a hard defense to make. And if I'm the defense attorney on this case, I'm going to be looking at other things. Does someone else shoot these kids? Right. Was she under the influence? Was she

unlawfully drugged by someone else? Is there medication in her? Can we talk about that real quick before we get in any further? Would it be standard protocol to test her blood for any alcohol, drugs, toxins? And if they didn't, if law enforcement didn't, is that something that the defense attorney could bring up as a potential issue later down the line. If they did not? Yes. Okay. Yeah, I mean, that's something I would bring up. I mean, generally cases like this, in any case, particularly in Texas, where they love to test

your blood for anything, they're probably going to do these tests, mostly for a liability issue for the jail as well, because now you've brought this person in who's clearly acting delusional, walking in circles, talking to someone who's not out there, talking to the devil, saying her kids are with the devil because she's not going to let them take her out. There's something wrong here. So you're going to have a medical evaluation, and that medical evaluation team is going to decide what test need to be done to best treat this person because the other thing that you're going to be looking for if you're the jail or the sheriff in Texas is to say, wait a minute, I don't know if this person needs to be on suicide watch. I don't want this liability in my jail without having a metal team truly evaluate what's going on with her mentally, what's going on with her psychotically, what's going on with her biology here. She's under something. So those are evaluations we're going to want to do. But as the defense team, of course, you're going to want that information. And if they don't have it, it's great because now you can create more reasonable doubt. Sometimes it's better that they didn't do the testing. It's a really good point.

That's a really good point. Okay. So let's talk about this, Dr. Wilson. I want to get your reaction to Romulus's social media presence. Okay. So we dug into her Instagram page. And while some moms, you know, might be sharing photos and videos of their children's milestones or these really special, cherished moments. Her page has almost no posts that feature her children. Many of her photos and videos, they showcase a party lifestyle, includes her showing off stacks of cash and luxury purchases. Although, as we know, what's presented online isn't always the truth, no matter who you're talking about. We found this example, by the way, of Romulus is apparent, maybe attitude toward her children. It's from a trip to Cancun that they took for spring break earlier this year. And a photo of a

drink with the caption, I had to soon as I got off the flight, because these kids ain't worth a damn. Then there's a video, apparently from that same trip, that shows or seems to show Romulus escorting a group of children to an area with a pool. She speaks with a moron the way down a flight of stairs. And the caption on the video reads, much needed, smiling emoji with hearts. If F them kids was a person, face palm emoji. Y'all got us to go. Peace, y'all in. Peace, mommy. Yeah, I'm not.

A great time. What? I would have a great time without us. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I am. I'm going to have a great luck in time with talk on us. Bye. Cario was going to get your baby, six. My best is true.

Yes. Why? Why? Because you're going to get in the pool. Because you're going to get in the pool. Look, they're going to have a good time. Yes. Come on, everybody's inside.

And one of the last videos posted before this tragedy has the caption, Mama Gotta Have a Life Too. Dr. Wilson, is this relevant for the case? Is this something that investigators, prosecutors, perhaps the defense attorneys will look at and use? I mean, prosecutors might try to use it, right? I mean, they probably will hope that a jury has seen these images already. kids picks it up. But I don't think it's directly relevant to the state. I mean, if there's other information that comes out, if there's child abuse allegations, if there's allegations

tied to these specific events or pictures, where they're kind of like time stamped or time captured, that could be relevant. But these are out of court statements that don't send to have anything to do with her quality as a mother. I mean, these are things that, you know, I have a lot of friends that are single mothers. And a lot of them, they'll have their entire Instagram child free, right? This is their fantasy late. Not that they don't love their kids, but they have a lot of stress and taking care of these kids on their own and Instagram is about them and bigging themselves up and being able to look glamorous and just have that kind of single sexy woman moment, right? And the kind of F them kid statement is a thing that's really common, at least

in people around my age, right? It's kind of just this notion that you get to be a human being too. But they can be misconstrued or they could be really deeply held beliefs that, no, I don't give an F about my children at all. I do wish they were dead. I do have resentment toward them. So, I mean, we have to be able to tie these statements to at least, at least a pattern of events that underlie and say that this is her deeply health feeling and aren't just kind of out of court hearsay type of moments. Right, tie it to this kind of intent to kill. I talked about the fact that Romulus's posts tended to feature these expensive items like purses, sunglasses, cash. The search warrants that were filed by Montgomery County deputies,

they kind of give us insight into how she may have come by that cash. So the warrants have a black and white photo of a brick home on Spear Valley Lane in Porter, Texas. And in addition to requesting photos and videos of the inside and outside of the home to be put into evidence, the warrants, they list items that deputies wanted to get their hands on inside. That includes all electronics that can store data like DVR systems, cell phones, tablets, computers, SIM cards, hard drives, any equipment that can be used to print, copy, scan, produce, alter any paper item, any and all items containing identifying information for any purpose. And we'll get to why in just a second. But Dr. Wilson, in situations like this, where a person is accused of such horrific

crimes, what are the limits on what investigators can seek with warrants? And what do you think might be going on here? Well, yeah, I'll tell you what. When I look at a murder case, I'm generally not thinking I'm going to find a mastermind criminal fraud. Right? So, These are completely, generally different types of people that commit these two different crimes unless a person that does get murdered is also involved in this kind of fraudulent scammer activity. But when you're looking to create a search warrant, you're looking to find evidence that is tied to the crime that you believe this happened, right?

A couple different types of warrants you can get. You can get a warrant because you believe that a crime is afoot. You can get a warrant because you believe a crime has already happened. And that kind of evidence itself is going to be disappeared. harmed and might perish because it could be something that's biodegradable. We don't know, right? But you have to list them that one of the things you're hoping to find with particularity. So it tells me that when they have these list of items that they're looking for,

they've gotten some information or an inkling about these things somewhere else. Because what does that have to do with shooting four children? That is a strange, attenuated connection. So that tells me that officers already had an inkling that some other things were going on. So I'm wondering what did she say in the interview, you know, what was found in the car, in her purse, on her person. On her phone, perhaps, if she was not represented by counsel and silly enough to give her phone to the police, where did this inkling come from for the police? Because it seems to me very clearly that this woman, aside of allegedly murdering her children,

allegedly, she's really a smart criminal business woman. If she's able to pull all this off, get all this information, have such money, I imagine what she could have done if she would have did these things the right way, got an MBA, went to school, started her own business, and be able to really provide for her kids. So I'm wondering, you know, what, what is behind this out she get into it. Let's expand upon that a little bit because we should know that the search warrants. They also indicate that there was a dog that was, quote, abandoned at the residence that's now under the care of animal control.

These warrants also reveal that deputies were concerned about a person that could be in this home as well because the warrant state at the time of units arrival at the Spear Valley Lane location, the oldest child of Romulus, a 17-year-old was unaccounted for as this child was not located in the vehicle with the four other victims. Now, eventually, deputies, they breached the door of this home. They wanted to look inside, figure out if this 17-year-old was inside. And if so, was this person okay? No one was found.

I want to talk about some of the items that were found inside that house. So the paperwork says that during an initial search, investigators found evidence of a large-scale identity fraud scheme. Okay? So this is what we were talking about. Quote, I observe there to be a large amount of social security cards and other identification documents containing identity. identifying information of numerous individuals. This includes social security cards. U.S. treasuring checks addressed to this location with different names contained on the checks. The counterfeit identification documents were in various stages of manufacture bearing different names,

states, and photographs. These items are believed to be connected to criminal activity, but outside the scope of the initial warrant for the residents. Some identification cards had photographs of Oninda Romulus with names of different individuals. These items were located in an office inside the home that also contain multiple shipping labels, phones, computers, laptops, printers, and other devices. So in total, investigators gathered up a staggering amount of potential evidence. Fox 26 Houston reports that court documents list out items, which include 31 Social Security cards, 33 ID cards, 15 credit cards, 15 packages of blank checks. Dr. Wilson, going back to you, if all of this is true, you mentioned it before about how they

might have got to it. Is this now going to be a separate case? Are they going to separate the killings versus potential financial fraud? It will probably be the same case as different charges, right? And you know, as you know, when you have a warrant, you're supposed to list the specific things that you're looking for. And I think the word we use, and criminal law haven't taught this part in a minute, but it's with particularity, right? You can't just go to a fishing expedition. But the rule also is, if you go into a home and you see evidence of another crime. It doesn't have to be a home office, wherever the warrant is. And you see evidence of another crime that's in what we call plain view. It's fair game, right? And so they went into that

office, office within this building or home or what have you, looking for this young man. And they saw all this evidence of another crime. And so that's fair game there. But yes, this is going to be part of the same case. And that's going to be difficult for an attorney because a lot of us specialize. So maybe you specialize in murder cases, but now you have this maybe, I don't know what type of fraud or how many different types. of fraud is going on here. I wouldn't feel equipped, right, necessarily, to take on the fraud case, but I feel more comfortable with the murder case. And of course, some people are best athletes and just say, hey, reasonable doubt, to reasonable doubt. But these are going to be the same case,

probably with an assorted team of attorneys if she can afford it, or hopefully her public defender service down there has a really highly qualified team. And that's a really good point. And I will tell you, the search warrants, they also indicate that there was a Tesla with a Georgia license plate that was parked in the driveway when the unit's got there and background records show that Romulus previously lived in Georgia. Now, according to investigators, a surveillance camera from across the street apparently showed multiple people coming out of the home just after 2.30 a.m. on Saturday, October 4th, with some of the subjects being, quote, small in stature, consistent with children. They apparently got into a car

next to the Tesla, drove away. The warrant requested access to the Tesla's camera system, the storage in order to gather information about the people who might have left the home that night. The investigator providing details for the warrant noted that it can take several days, maybe even weeks, to gather this much electronic evidence. Dr. Wilson, we talk about electronic evidence all the time, how maybe in today's day and age, it can be a lot more difficult for someone to hide criminal activity or to get away with a crime. I mean, a Tesla in and of itself is almost like a computer. It's a very different kind of operating machine. It's a very different kind of how it can store information. I'm curious what we can expect when we talk about

electronic evidence. Well, I mean, Tesla's are really particular. I have a Kia EV-9 and I love the car because security features are so great and there's so many cameras. I have a friend who recently, I believe, had their Tesla, someone tried to steal it and the person was on camera because the Tesla was yet recording, right? So when these things can act as surveillance devices end of themselves, you have a problem here. But of course, when we're trying to get subpoenas for electronic devices. With a Tesla, it might even be as hard as kind of with a cell phone. So do you need to get the subpoena from to the Tesla company? Are there certain encryption ways that you can do, encrypt your data with your Tesla? How do you actually get into the cars? There's a lot of

questions there. And oftentimes, these companies don't want to give you the data, even though there might be a murderer, a serial killer, or a rapist on the loose, because the way they sell themselves is, look, this is your privacy here. And they're selling the notion of privacy and convenience. So if someone like Tesla, we've seen this with Apple in the past, with the FBI, just hands over the data, just hands over their surveillance without any type of real fight. It cheapens in the eyes of a lot of consumers, the experience and the product that they're buying. It feels like you can't even have, you know, the so-called right to privacy, in your own home, in your own car, what have you. And of course, we know with the vehicle

you have a reduced right to privacy as well. So I think there are a lot of issues there, not necessarily with just a legal piece of the subpoena and getting that information, but the kind of battle with the company that is looking also at their bottom line, their brand, their reputation. I'm glad you mentioned that because we talk so much about chat GPT and how what you put in there can be potentially used in a criminal case and how technology advances and we talk about privacy. But I will mention this. There is another strange twist to this case.

So while deputies at a news conference wouldn't discuss. any custody issues surrounding Romulus's children. Romulus herself was featured on an episode of the TV show, Paternity Court. Yeah, so according to the Daily Mail, the question of who the father of an 18-month-old child, who that father was, was posed in a 2013 episode. Now, it's unclear if that child was one of the victims in the case.

I will say the ages do line up for it to be 13-year-old Ocario. When it comes to other details from Romulus's background, Fox 26 Houston reports, that the Fayette County Sheriff's Office in Georgia confirmed to them that Romulus was arrested in 2022, charged with misdemeanor DUI of drugs, failure to maintain her lane, possession of less than one ounce of marijuana. The outlet reports that it appears she entered a guilty plea to the DUI charge. The prosecution dropped the other two charges. Dr. Wilson, before I let you go, any way that could play into the case, you know, we talk about prior bad acts, prior history,

anything like that we should be considering in this investigation or this potential legal Well, I would think not necessarily the marijuana possession or, you know, driving while under the influence of weed. No offense to my friends in Atlanta, but I think you could throw a rock in Atlanta and probably hit someone driving into influence of weed. But in terms of, you know, that TV show is really interesting to me because it makes me wonder, is this person in conjunction with the Instagram? Is this someone who was looking for notoriety? Is this someone who's trying to become kind of reality TV type of part? So we know those paternity case court TV shows. are all about getting your name out there.

A lot of it's fabricated. So I'm wondering, is she trying to create a bigger image, a larger-than-life image for herself? But with both that and this tax issue, is this a motive? This is why she needs to get rid of the kids, potentially, so she can be by herself, be a celebrity, live her best life.

I mean, that's something to look into. It's not dispositive of that. It's not evidence, but it's a theme, right? It's something to keep in the back of your head. But, yeah, the marijuana, I wouldn't as much worry about that. It doesn't really have a connection to many things, besides maybe, you know, being a single mother and trying to de-stress

and making some bad decisions. But I would wonder, what is the motive here? And does this connection with Instagram and the bags and the cash and the TV shows, and perhaps Atlanta itself, does that portend to kind of desire, right, to be free of these children,

to have a kind of celebrity profile, to live an alternative life, right? Yeah. And going back to the human aspect of this, let's just end on this point. It is so tragic. It is so sad because you think what becomes of the two surviving children, right, who are expected to recover? Well, for now,

it's not clear who's going to take custody of them when they are released from the hospital. This is according to Fox 26 Houston. A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, Melissa Lanford, told the outlet, Child Protective Services is investigating this case, making sure that the safety and well-being of the surviving children is our first priority. Ms. Romulus has had contact with CPS on one other occasion. Details of that interaction are confidential, but will be included in a public child fatality report when our investigation is complete. Dr. Wilson, such a pleasure to have you on. Thank you so much for breaking down the legal intricacies of this complicated, sad, disturbing case. And I look forward to having you back here

on Sidebar. Yeah, thank you so much. I'd just say one last thing. Tony Morrison was asked about survival, and she said, you know, sometimes we don't survive in whole. We only survive in part. and that is my fear for these kids, the parts of them that survive. Thank you for having me. This was a great but also very serious and sad conversation. And that is all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts.

You can follow me on X or Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll see you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.