Mother Charged With Fatally Beating Sons With Dumbbell

July 22, 2005, DYER, Ind. — -- Police say an Indiana woman bludgeoned her two sons to death with a 10-pound dumbell because she thought they would be better off in heaven.

Magdalena Lopez, 30, was charged Thursday with two counts of murder in the deaths of Antonio, 9, and Eric, 2. She was arrested Tuesday night after calling police to her home. According to a police report, when officers arrived, Lopez walked out with blood stains on her clothes and bare feet. She allegedly told officers, "I had to kill them. They're in a much better place now."

Police said Lopez made several calls to friends and relatives after allegedly killing the boys and called her husband Robert at work to tell him what she had done. Robert Lopez's husband came home after police arrived.

An autopsy conducted by the Lake County coroner's office found that Antonio and Eric died of multiple head fractures.

Lake County police said they had received reports of child abuse and domestic violence earlier this year at the home where the Lopezes had lived for at least four years. In March, a school counselor contacted authorities and alleged that Lopez had choked Antonio, but police say the accusations were not substantiated.

Neighbors told ABC News affiliate WLS in Chicago that the boys' mother sometimes complained of being overwhelmed by her sons.

"Maggie was a very good mother to those little babies. I don't know what happened," said neighbor Mary Liakos. "She said that sometimes things got too rough for her. She told me sometimes she would sit in the house in a corner and she just … I don't know. She'd just stare … I don't know. I didn't think that this would happen."

Antonio and Eric's paternal grandparents told WLS that they were also concerned about the boys' mother.

Irene Lopez said in reports that her daughter-in-law was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in the past year. The grandparents said they recently took her to see a specialist and that the specialist told them she would pose no threat to the children as long as she stayed on her anti-depression medication.

The grandparents shared a poem they said Magdalena Lopez wrote to her oldest son:

"I screamed for 17 hours to have you. Now I scream 17 hours at you. Where has the love gone? Why can't we get along?"