Claire Roney and Megan Cassidy

The Republic | azcentral.com

Three boys, ages 8, 5 and 2 months, were found stabbed to death at a north Phoenix home early Thursday. Their mother, a suspect in their murder, was hospitalized in critical condition with self-inflicted stab wounds, a Phoenix police spokesman said Thursday.

The older boys were found in a bedroom closet, and the infant was found in a suitcase in the same closet, said Sgt. Trent Crump, Phoenix police spokesman. Some of the body parts were dismembered, Crump said.

The owner of the house and the children's grandmother, Tanella McCoy, identified the boys as 8-year-old Jaikare Rahaman, 5-year-old Jeremiah Adams and 2-month-old Avery Robinson.

She identified their mother as 29-year-old Octavia Rogers.

Reached by phone on Thursday, McCoy described Rogers as a "good mother."

"She didn’t go out, she didn’t party, she didn’t do any of that," McCoy said.

McCoy said Rogers had no reason to be overwhelmed with the stresses of motherhood — she had plenty of help with the kids. And there didn't seem to be anything wrong the last time she saw her, when McCoy was leaving for work about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday.

"I don’t know what to feel right now. I don’t know where to go, I don’t know where to turn," she said. "My daughter knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I would take her kids ... because there were times she would talk to me about leaving for the summer."

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McCoy said her grandson Avery was a "very good baby" who was just learning how to smile. Jeremiah was her "muscleman" who would carry cases of water inside the house for her. And Jaikare was her "book scholar."

"He learned how to read and everywhere we went he’d say, 'Grandma, this says ..." McCoy said before trailing off. "it’s really hard to tell you about them because I don't know what do from this point today."

Police said Rogers stabbed herself in the abdomen and the neck but was expected to survive those injuries.

Rogers had grown up in Phoenix and had moved to Virginia in 2014, police said, before moving back for the baby's birth.

Crump said the boys' fathers were "not in the picture."

Investigators were focusing on the two hours that the other adults were away from the house Wednesday night as the likely time the children were killed, Crump said.

Crump said the suspect's brother called 911 about 2 a.m. to the house in the 16000 block of North 25th Drive, in a neighborhood near Greenway Road east of Interstate 17.

Crump said the brother told officers that when he got home from work that night, he was talking to his sister in the garage. She was talking about religion and how she had found the answer, Crump said.

The brother said she then locked him out of the house and he had to force his way in, Crump said. He found her in the bathroom with multiple stab wounds. When the brother went to get towels, he said she tried to drown herself in the bathtub, Crump said.

Crump said she told her brother she was pregnant while she was stabbing herself, but Crump emphasized that that information was preliminary.

When first responders were treating the woman, she indicated that her children were with another family member, Crump said. Officers discovered the children in a routine check of the house.

Family members, who were cooperating fully with the police investigation, said the woman had no known mental illness, Crump said.

He said if the woman does survive, homicide charges would be filed against her.

Crump said such a crime scene involving children was always difficult for investigators, and a police employee assistance unit was at the house Thursday morning.

Neighbors in Canyon Crest, a community of stucco townhouses, gathered behind the police tape about 8 a.m. to say a prayer. They described the area as relatively quiet.

Jeremy Browning, who lives nearby, said the older boys often were outside late at night.

"You would hear the kids until midnight sometimes, and the next morning they wouldn't come out at all," Browning said.

He said the adults in the house waved as they were driving in and out. He said he had a brief interaction with the mother at a community yard sale, nothing important or striking, but no other conversations.

Ryan Rutt, another neighbor, said he just about ran over the two older kids recently as they darted out in front of his car.

"It was really odd, because the parents were outside and it looked like they didn't even care," Rutt said.

Lauren Severns, 10, a neighbor, said the 5-year-old was active and always playing games.

"He was just a little boy that everybody wanted," she said.

The 8-year-old and 5-year old had just gotten new bikes, Lauren said, and they let her younger brother ride them.

"It made me really heartbroken because those are the only friends my brother has," she said.