The father of two young children found dead in his eastern Nebraska home, where they had been staying for a court-ordered visitation with him, was charged Monday with child abuse resulting in death, authorities said.
Adam Price, 35, was charged after the bodies of his children, 5-year-old Emily Price and 3-year-old Theodore Price, were found Sunday morning at a home in Bellevue, south of Omaha.
Price was arrested Sunday in Pacifica, California, near San Francisco. An extradition hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
Police have not said how the children died. The charges do not specify how Price allegedly caused the children’s death, The Omaha World-Herald reported.
The children’s mother, Mary Nielsen, told reporters that she and Price are in the process of getting divorced and the children were at their father’s home for court-ordered visitation.
Nielsen, who had moved to Illinois with the children, called police more than once and went on social media to plead for information on her children’s whereabouts after not hearing from them since Thursday. Nielsen said her husband was under court order to provide her daily communication with the children during his visits.
Bellevue police twice went to Adam Price’s home — late Saturday night and early Sunday morning — at Nielsen’s request to check on the children, but left when no one answered the door. Bellevue police spokesman Capt. Andy Jashinske said in a news release that officers didn’t have sufficient reason to force an entry into the home.
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A friend of Nielsen’s went to Price’s home around 11 a.m. Sunday at her request and went inside after finding the door unlocked. The friend called police after finding the children’s bodies.
Nielsen told the Omaha World-Herald that her children had been “happy, sweet, loving,” and described Emily as exceptionally smart and Theodore as a typical little boy who liked playing with superheroes.
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“I wish I could hold you one more time and tell you how much I love you,” she said in a Facebook post Monday. “Rest easy, my sweet babies.”
