SE Woman Says Four Daughters Were 'Possessed'

"If parents opt to home-school a student, there "is no way of following" them, she said.

Neighbors were unsure exactly when the family moved into the home. The eviction came after a mortgage loan company bought the home through a foreclosure sale. No one responded to notices to move, and a judge ordered the evictions in October. Three marshals showed up at the home at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday to clear out the house.

Once inside, marshals found religious writings on the walls, authorities said. Prosecutors said that Jacks sat on the steps and initially blocked their path upstairs. She was taken into custody once the bodies were found and was then interviewed by homicide investigators.

According to charging documents, Jacks told police that her oldest daughter, Brittany, died in her sleep.

"She said that the children began dying in their sleep, one at a time, all within a seven- to 10-day period," the charging documents stated. "She said that as the first three younger children died, she placed them side by side in the room in which they died."

Prosecutors also quoted Jacks as saying that she had not fed the children for a substantial period of time before they died.

Jacks, who attended the hearing in D.C. Superior Court wearing a white prison jumpsuit, did not speak other than to give her name. Family members filled three rows of the courtroom behind her but declined to comment after the proceedings.

Her attorney, Peter Krauthamer, a public defender, argued at the hearing that nothing connected the children's deaths to Jacks. She has previous arrests for traffic offenses but no criminal history. According to Krauthamer, she should be released while awaiting trial because she posed no threat to anyone.

Prosecutor Deborah Sines countered: "How many bodies do you need?" Magistrate Judge Karen Howze agreed that evidence warranted keeping Jacks locked up, pending a hearing Feb. 11.

Outside the courthouse, Tawana Crump, 45, who said she spent the day with Jacks in a cellblock area, told reporters that other prisoners asked Jacks if she had killed the children, and she told them yes.

"She kept talking about her kids had demons in them," said Crump, who was locked up on a drug charge but let go after authorities declined to prosecute her. She said Jacks "smelled like death," an odor so strong that Crump and other prisoners asked for masks.

"The woman is crazy," Crump said.

City officials, and those who knew the family, view the situation as much more complex.

Fenty and other D.C. government leaders were looking to see whether they missed opportunities to help. City Administrator Dan Tangherlini and acting Attorney General Peter Nickles met yesterday with the heads of several city agencies, including the public schools, to review the government's interaction with the family and determine whether the city failed to properly see to the children's well-being.

D.C. Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), chair of the Committee on Human Services, is holding a hearing Tuesday to figure out what went wrong and which city agencies could have done more to prevent the deaths.

Family members and friends were looking for answers, too. Richardson, the godmother, who was close friends with Fogle, said that Jacks depended heavily on him and was devastated when he died.

"He was more of a breadwinner in the house. He made sure they had food on their table and clothes on their backs. He did home improvement. He worked at McDonald's. Any job he could get to support his family, he did," Richardson said. "I think she couldn't handle things without him. She couldn't accept the fact that he was gone. I don't think she could get it together after he passed."

Richardson's thoughts turned to the children. Her godchildren, N'Kiah and Aja, were "full of energy," she said, adding, "They would just cling to you."

Tatiana was "full of joy" and enjoyed playing with the two young girls, Richardson said. She described Brittany, 17, as "a normal teenager. She hung out with her friends."

Richardson said that Fogle wanted her to help look after the family and that she tried. She said she repeatedly told Jacks to contact her if she needed help. But Jacks always insisted she was doing all right.

"I just wish as I was coming over to give her her mail, I just wish she had opened up to me and just talked, because I believe those girls would be alive," Richardson said.

Staff writers Paul Duggan, Petula Dvorak, Megan Greenwell, V. Dion Haynes, Theola Labb¿, Dan Morse, David Nakamura and Debbi Wilgoren and staff researchers Eddy Palanzo, Magda Jean-Louis and Rena Kirsch contributed to this report.