Court documents: Mom confessed to drowning daughter, helping other daughter cut throat

PORTLAND -- Murder suspect Jessica Smith confessed to police that she drowned her 2-year-old daughter in a bathtub and helped her 13-year-old daughter cut her own throat and wrists in a Surfsand Resort resort room in Cannon Beach, Ore., on Aug. 1 before driving off, court documents alleged Monday, according to KPTV.

In addition,the 13-year-old daughter who survived told medics that she and her sister didn't want to live with her father, who was seeking custody, and they "just wanted to get out of it," the documents said.

The medics described the teenager as being "eerily calm" when they spoke with her and that she told them that her mother was probably driving to the forest to kill herself, the documents said.

The discovery of the girls by a Surfsand Resort housekeeper set off a frantic search for their mother.

Two days after the death of Isabella Smith and the serious injuries suffered by her sister, a Coast Guard helicopter crew spotted Jessica Smith standing next to her gold Chevy Suburban off a rural logging road.

When speaking with detectives, she confessed to drowning her youngest daughter and to helping her teenage daughter cut her neck and wrists with a razor blade, the search warrant affidavit said.

Smith is now facing charges of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder, and she's being held without bail.

KPTV said the attorney of her estranged husband told FOX 12 that she was supposed to turn the girls over to their father for visitation on Aug. 1, the day they were found. In addition, the day before the alleged killing, Jessica Smith sent a 15-page email to her estranged husband's co-workers, telling them about their "horrible marriage," the court documents said

The husband, Greg Smith, had previously claimed his wife was manipulating their children and he had filed for divorce.