Website post says father devastated by children's slaying

On gofundme.com, in a post to raise money for the children’s funeral and his travel expenses, Mark Edge writes that he never thought ex-wife was capable of killing.

By Scott Schwebke - Orange County Register

September 24, 2013

SANTA ANA – The father of Jaelen and Faith Edge says he’s devastated by their deaths and never fathomed that their mother could be capable of killing them.

“I walk away from the evil deeds of one and carry the grief of three,” Mark Anthony Edge posted on the website gofundme.com in an effort to raise money for his children’s funeral and his travel expenses to attend the trial of his ex-wife Marilyn Kay Edge. “Jaelen, Faith, I am still with you and you are still with me forever and always.”

The funeral for Mark Edge’s son Jaelen, 13, and daughter, Faith, 10, will be held Thursday at the Salvation Army Kroc Center in Atlanta, followed by burial in the Georgia National Cemetery in nearby Canton.

The children’s mother, 42-year-old Marilyn Edge of Scottsdale, Ariz., is accused of giving them fatal doses of poison at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Santa Ana on Sept. 14 and then attempting to kill herself by driving her car laden with a propane tank into a pole and power box in the parking lot of a Home Depot in Costa Mesa.

Prosecutors have charged Marilyn Edge with two felony counts of murder, with sentencing enhancements for committing multiple murders and murder by poison.

Authorities have not released details about a possible motive for the slayings or the type of poison believed to have been used to kill Jaelen and Faith.

Marilyn Edge faces a minimum sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole if convicted. The Orange County District Attorney's Office could decide at a later date to seek the death penalty.

Court records and attorneys from Georgia indicate Mark and Marilyn Edge had been embroiled in a bitter custody battle over the children since their divorce in 2007.

Three days before the children’s bodies were found, a judge in Georgia ordered Marilyn Edge to hand over custody of them to their father.

Mark Edge, who described himself as a military veteran who served during Operation Desert Storm, expressed in his online posting on gofundme.com frustration with the legal system.

“Marilyn Kay Woody-Edge was found in contempt of court after taking our children from the state of Georgia to Arizona without proper consideration of me or authorization from the presiding court,” he said. “My attorney…. recommended that Marilyn Kay Woody-Edge be incarcerated until such time that the children were brought back from Arizona to Atlanta. The presiding Judge ignored my attorney’s recommendation and instead allowed Marilyn Kay Woody-Edge to go to Arizona to retrieve our children on her own.”

Mark Edge also said Marilyn texted him that she was returning the children to him Sept. 14 but instead killed them that day.

“I have never loved anyone or anything as much as I love our children,” he wrote in the online posting. “I never thought that Marilyn would take our children from both of us.”

Prosecutor: Slain kids thought they were going to Disneyland

Marilyn Edge told the judge she wants the death penalty when she appeared in a hearing over charges she poisoned her son and daughter.

By Salvador Hernandez, Scott Schwebke and Vik Jolly - Orange County Register

September 17, 2013

SANTA ANA – Her two children were told they were headed to Disneyland and California beaches, prosecutors allege, but Marilyn Edge instead poisoned them in a hotel room.

Appearing for the first time in front of a judge Tuesday morning, the 42-year-old from Scottsdale, Ariz., kept her head down for most of the five-minute hearing. When Judge Craig Robison asked her if she would like to postpone her arraignment, she responded at least twice: “Only if you promise me the death penalty.”

Police said Edge has been on suicide watch since she was taken into custody Saturday, just after she put a propane tank in her car and crashed it into poles and a power box in the parking lot of a Home Depot in Costa Mesa.

While officers tried to get her out of the car, Edge tried to strangle herself with an electrical cord, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said. Officers broke a window and forcibly removed her from the vehicle. Edge told officers that her son Jaelen, 13, and daughter Faith, 10, were dead at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Santa Ana.

The children believed their trip to California from their Arizona home was much more innocent, prosecutors said.

“It appears from all the evidence that the children were under the impression that they were coming to California for beach and amusement, such as Disneyland,” Deputy District Attorney Sonia Balleste said.

After her short appearance in front of a judge, Edge was transferred from Santa Ana Jail to the county women’s jail, arrest logs show. She was being held in a medical housing area, Orange County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Jeff Hallock said.

Prosecutors have charged Edge with two felony counts of murder, with sentencing enhancements for committing multiple murders and murder by poison.

She faces a minimum sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole if convicted. The District Attorney's Office could also decide at a later date to seek the death penalty against Edge.

Bertagna said he could not discuss specifics, but said Edge has spoken with detectives since Saturday.

“She has been cooperative with detectives,” he said.

An autopsy was completed Monday to help determine the causes of the deaths of the children. Complete results from toxicology tests are pending.

Law enforcement officials would not comment on a possible motive for the killings.

Balleste said she could not comment on whether Edge made any statements or to whom but described her as an educated woman with a business degree.

Arrest records show Edge worked as an analyst. Balleste said Edge has worked for banks.

“It just shocks the conscience when you see murdered children as precious as these two little angels,” she said. “You have children who are 13 and 10 and they have a life story, and they will be missed by many.”

Court records and attorneys from Georgia said Edge had been embroiled in a contentious divorce and custody hearing with her former husband since 2007.

Three days before the children’s bodies were found, a judge in Georgia ordered Edge to hand over custody of them to their father. Edge walked out of the courtroom in the middle of the judge’s decision, said Marian Weeks, who represented Edge’s former husband, Mark Anthony Edge, in the hearing.

Their elder had been diagnosed with autism, which played a central role in the court filings.

Edge said the father’s visits with the children affected their son negatively because he required consistency. She contended the boy was being forced to spend time with “basically someone he didn’t know,” said attorney Elizabeth Kuhn, who represented Marilyn Edge in several of the hearings.

Both she and her former husband had lived in Georgia. But Edge moved the children to Arizona after a judge granted unsupervised visits with their father, Kuhn said.

It wasn’t clear when that was. But Edge had an Arizona driver’s license by the time she was given a traffic citation in July, records show. The citation indicated that she was living in a condominium complex on the north side of Scottsdale, Ariz.

Despite the court battles that involved fights over child-support payments and custody – and reached the Supreme Court of Georgia – attorneys said they never expected this outcome.

“Never in a million years,” Kuhn said. “She was loving and compassionate with her children.”

Weeks said Mark Edge was hospitalized Sunday after learning of his children’s death.

Betty Edge, Mark Edge’s stepmother, said in a phone interview from her home in Whitesburg, Ga., that he took the news hard when police notified him his children had been killed.

“He just collapsed,” Betty Edge said. “(Hospital personnel) tried, and they couldn’t get him calmed down.”

Since then, Mark Edge has been trying his best to cope with the loss of his children. “He is hanging in there,” Betty Edge said.

In addition, Betty Edge said she didn’t know Marilyn Edge well and met her only once in the hospital after she gave birth to Jaelen. “I’ve only seen her a couple of hours,” she added.

Still, she was shocked to see Marilyn Edge’s photo on television after her arrest. “It’s pretty messed up,” Betty Edge said, describing her feelings about the crime.

Edge is expected back in court Oct. 25.

Marilyn Edge Update: Ariz. mom accused of poisoning daughter, autistic son, charged with murder

CBSNews.com

September 17, 2013

(CBS/AP) SANTA ANA, Calif. - A mother involved in a contentious custody case was charged Monday with killing her 13-year-old autistic son and 9-year-old daughter in California after a judge ordered them returned to their father in Georgia.

Authorities weren't releasing many details, but one of the special circumstances filed by prosecutors against 42-year-old Marilyn Edge alleges the children were poisoned.

Edge, of Scottsdale, Ariz., is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday. She was charged Monday with two counts of murder with special circumstances in the deaths of her daughter Faith and son Jaelen.

Edge lost custody of them on Wednesday in a Georgia case and then texted her ex-husband, Mark Edge, two days later that she would bring the children back on Sunday, his attorney Marian Weeks said. The children were found Saturday in a Santa Ana hotel room.

Mark Edge was informed about the death of the children early Sunday by Atlanta police and was taken to a hospital for duress.

"He's emotionally, extremely distressed," Weeks said. "He is getting better. His whole focus right now is on the children."

Marilyn Edge could be eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

She was driving a car that crashed Saturday into an electrical box outside a shopping complex in Costa Mesa. She refused to get out of the car and tried to choke herself with an electrical cord as rescuers attempted to free her, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said.

Police found propane in the car but wouldn't say whether there was a suicide note.

Authorities said Edge told investigators they could find her children's bodies at the hotel.

CBS Los Angeles reports autopsies on the two children were completed Monday but results have not been released, according to Bertagna.

The Edges were married for less than 10 years and divorced in December 2007, Weeks said. Marilyn Edge claimed her former husband, who routinely traveled to Afghanistan where he worked as a contractor, failed to make child support payments, according to court records.

She also claimed the children of a friend of her ex-husband were sexually abusing her kids, but the allegations were never proven, Weeks said.

Marilyn Edge was given full custody of her children in October 2009, a ruling that was later set aside after Mark Edge contended he wasn't aware of a court hearing because he was overseas and documents were sent to a wrong address. However, the Georgia Supreme Court later found there wasn't enough evidence to set aside the ruling.

Weeks said the case began to turn in the ex-husband's favor in September, when a judge reduced child support payments and ordered joint custody. At the time, Mark Edge hadn't seen his kids in more than 1 1/2 years because his ex-wife refused to let him visit, the lawyer said.

Mark Edge was stymied again by his ex-wife, who moved to Arizona shortly after the judge's order, saying she was getting a job transfer. He only saw his children three or four times via video phone calls, Weeks added.

"All he wanted was to spend time with his children," Weeks said. "But Marilyn could not let that happen."

At a hearing last Wednesday in a Georgia courtroom, a judge found that Marilyn Edge was alienating her children from her ex-husband and said he should be given full custody, Weeks said. It's customary for the custody transfer to happen the same day as the judge's order, Weeks said, but Marilyn Edge said the children were staying with her parents in Arizona.

The judge gave her until noon Sunday to turn over the children. On Friday, Mark Edge received a text from his ex-wife saying, "'I will see you on Sunday and I have their school records,'" Weeks said.

Lawyer Mary Ann Korre said she had only represented Marilyn Edge at the most recent child custody hearing and had only known her client a few weeks.

She wasn't aware of any reason why her client wouldn't want her ex-husband to have contact with the children. Marilyn Edge was calm at the last hearing and there was nothing to indicate she might harm the kids, Korre said.

"I received the news yesterday and I was just very shocked," Korre said. "It's just a very tragic situation."

Mother 'fatally poisoned autistic son, 13, and daughter, 9, in a hotel room after judge gave their father custody'

• Jaelen Edge, 13, and Faith, 9, were found dead on Saturday morning

• Their mother Marilyn Edge, 42, was caught by police 'when she tried to take her life by crashing her car - and told officers about the children's bodies'

• She had lost custody of the children just three days before they were killed

DailyMail.co.uk

September 17, 2013

A mother has been accused of fatally poisoning her 13-year-old autistic son and nine-year-old daughter in a hotel room after a judge awarded custody of the children to their father.

Marilyn Edge, 42, was arrested in Costa Mesa, California on Saturday after she apparently tried to take her own life by crashing her car. She told responding police officers they could find the bodies of her children, Jaelen and Faith, in a room at the Hampton Inn in Santa Ana.

Edge, from Scottsdale, Arizona, has now been charged with two counts of murder with special circumstances and is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday. If convicted, she could be eligible for the death penalty.

Their deaths came after Edge lost custody of her children amid a years-long contentious divorce with her ex-husband. A Georgia judge awarded her former husband, Mark Edge, custody of the children on Wednesday.

She texted Edge on Friday to say she would give him the children on Sunday - but their bodies were found on Saturday.

Mr Edge, who lives in Marietta, Georgia, was told about the deaths early on Sunday by Atlanta police and was taken to a hospital for duress.

'He's emotionally, extremely distressed,' his attorney Marian Weeks said. 'He is getting better. His whole focus right now is on the children.'

Marilyn Edge crashed her car into an electrical box outside a shopping complex in Costa Mesa on Saturday.

She refused to get out and tried to choke herself with an electrical cord as rescuers attempted to free her, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said. Police also found propane in the car.

Edge then told investigators they could find her children's bodies at the hotel, police said.

The couple divorced in December 2007 after less than 10 years of marriage. Marilyn Edge had claimed her former husband, who worked as a contractor, failed to make child support payments.

She had also claimed that children of her ex-husband's friend were sexually abusing her son and daughter, but the allegations were never proven, Weeks said.

Marilyn Edge was given full custody of her children in October 2009, but this was later set aside when Mark Edge said he had been working overseas so was unaware of the court date. The Georgia Supreme Court later found there wasn't enough evidence to set aside the ruling, AP reported.

But in September a judge reduced child support payments and ordered joint custody of the children. Before that point, Edge hadn't seen his children in more than 18 months because his ex-wife refused to let him visit, the lawyer said.

The ex-wife then moved to Arizona, claiming she was taking a job transfer, and Mr Edge only spoke to his children on video phone calls, his lawyer said.

At a hearing on Wednesday, a judge found that Marilyn Edge was alienating her children from her ex-husband and said he should be given full custody, Weeks said.

The judge gave her until noon Sunday to turn over the children. On Friday, Mark Edge received a text from his ex-wife saying: 'I will see you on Sunday and I have their school records'.

Lawyer Mary Ann Korre said she had only represented Marilyn Edge at the most recent child custody hearing and had only known her client a few weeks.

She wasn't aware of any reason why her client wouldn't want her ex-husband to have contact with the children. Marilyn Edge was calm at the last hearing and there was nothing to indicate she might harm the kids, Korre said.

'I received the news yesterday and I was just very shocked,' she said. 'It's just a very tragic situation.'

The double homicide left locals and hotel guests stunned.

'My goodness if there's two children involved that's just horrendous to say the least,' Mike Ramey told KABC. 'As a parent, it's just a heartbreaker.'

Marilyn Kay Edge, Mom Who Allegedly Killed Her Two Kids, Asks 3 Times for Death Penalty

By Matt Coker - OCweekly.com

September 17, 2013

ORIGINAL POST, SEPT. 16, 9:35 A.M.: Longtime readers know Orange County has a fair share of bizarre family murders without having to have more brought here from elsewhere.

But imported mayhem is what local investigators are dealing with today after Marilyn Edge--who is originally from Scottsdale, Arizona, but had been residing in San Jose--drove a car with Georgia plates into an electrical vault in Costa Mesa in an apparent attempt to kill herself after allegedly leaving the bodies of her two murdered children in a Santa Ana motel room.

Discovering the grisly murder scene began to unfold a little after 8 a.m. Saturday, when Edge crashed a gray Honda Accord into the steel poles protecting an electrical vault in the Alberton's and Home Depot shopping center at 2300 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa, according to police in that city.

As rescuers tried to get to Edge, she is alleged to have tried have strangled herself with a belt or rope. She was safely pulled out of the Accord and taken to Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, where she allegedly revealed during treatment she had killed her children--a 10-year-old girl and 13-year-old boy--and left their bodies in a third-floor room at the Hampton Inn & Suites in the 2700 block of Hotel Terrace, Santa Ana.

Costa Mesa Police contacted their counterparts in Santa Ana for a safety check at the motel, where the bodies of the children were found just after 9 a.m. Santa Ana detectives went to the hospital, questioned Edge and arrested her on suspicion of double murder.

The boy was reportedly autistic. Edge sued the Secretary of Health and Human Services in 2004 alleging a vaccination given to her son caused his autism, but the suit was tossed on grounds she did not provide proof to support the claim.

The father of the children, who lives out of state, was notified about their deaths Saturday.

*****

UPDATE NO. 1, SEPT. 16, 2:51 P.M.: Marilyn Kay Edge, 42, of Scottsdale, Arizona, is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday morning in Santa Ana on two felony counts of special circumstances murder, according to the Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA).

The special circumstances sentencing enhancements include committing multiple murders and murder by poison, explains the OCDA, adding that the accused killer of her two children faces a minimum sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.

The OCDA indicated it intends to ask that Edge be held without bail.

Prosecutors identified the victims as 13-year-old Jaelen E. and 10-year-old Faith E. and added the Santa Ana police investigation continues.

City News Service reports the children's father, Mark Edge of Marietta, Georgia, had custody of them and they were supposed to be returned to him over the weekend.

*****

UPDATE NO. 2, SEPT. 16, 5:41 P.M.: Marilyn Kay Edge allegedly poisoned her precious babies.

Cpl. Anthony Bertagna, the Santa Ana Police spokesman, reportedly disclosed autopsies on the late 13-year-old Jaelen and 10-year-old Faith indicated both were poisoned.

Paul Anderson's City News Service report also sheds more light on the custody battle between the mother-turned-murder suspect and the children's father, Mark Edge, an Air Force Reservist who had full custody of Jaelen and Faith. The kids were supposed to be returned to the dad by noon Sunday, according to his lawyer, Marian Weeks.

Mark Edge is now so grief-stricken he had to be hospitalized, Weeks reportedly disclosed.

He apparently won custody because he was the more stable parent, having landed a job helping mentally disabled and autistic adults learn how to better care for themselves, while the mother spent years violating the father's visitation rights, according to Weeks.

"Last year, he finally got visitation and she immediately moved the children to Arizona," the attorney reportedly told City News Service of his client who resides in Georgia.

Weeks also is claimed to have noted Marilyn Edge had made false claims during custody hearings, including that a child of one of her ex-husband's friends had molested the girl. Mark Edge was also accused of physical and emotional abuse, allegations Weeks called unfounded. The father was in Afghanistan working on a defense contract and could not defend himself, Weeks reportedly said.

'He lost (his job) because of all the things she did here," the lawyer reportedly alleged. "When you start having your wages garnished and they're saying you have financial problems, then you lose your security clearance ... It took him awhile to get a job when he came back to the United States."

The lawyer claims the children were "happy as larks" around their father. "There's video of them all bowling, fishing and swinging in the park," Weeks reportedly said. "You can tell these kids loved their daddy."

But before winning custody, Mark Edge estimated he had only seen his children 10 times within the last year, according to Weeks, who reportedly said his client would have been "the happiest person in the world" if his ex-wife had simply granted weekend visitations.

"But she couldn't do that. It became so obvious that she would do anything to prevent visitation with her children."

*****

UPDATE NO. 3, SEPT. 17, 11:06 A.M.: When an Orange County Superior Court judge asked Marilyn Kay Edge three times this morning if she agrees to have her arraignment postponed to Oct. 25, she answered quietly each time, "Only if you promise to give me the death penalty," according to television news pool coverage from the hearing.

She spoke in sort of a monotone with her hands behind her back and head bowed down so her bushy, unkempt hair obscured her face. Her attorney asked Judge Craig Robinson for a rescheduling of the arraignment to confer with a psychiatrist and doctors treating Edge, who did not enter a plea today.

Robinson ordered Edge held without bail at Orange County Jail, where officials previously disclosed she is on suicide watch.

The prosecution has not revealed whether capital punishment will be sought, but Deputy
District Attorney Sonia Balleste reportedly said after the hearing, "This is as cold and disturbing a murder as you will see. It's an incredibly sad situation."

Balleste reportedly told City News Service that Edge coaxed her son Jaelen and daughter Faith to Orange County to enjoy some "fun activities," even though they were due back to their father who had custody of them in Georgia.

"Southern California is known for its beaches and Disneyland, and that may be quite an attractive thing for children of that age,'' the prosecutor reportedly said.

Atlanta father devastated by murder of his children

By Jennifer Mayerle - CBSAtlanta,com

September 16, 2013

ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) - A story that made national headlines begins and ends right here in Georgia. A mother allegedly killed her two children over the weekend. The murders happened in California but the family is from Cobb County, GA.

Marilyn Edge was supposed to turn her kids over to their dad, Mark Edge, as part of an ongoing custody dispute. Last week a Cobb County judge awarded Mark Edge temporary full custody.

"We're just devastated," Mark Edge's attorney Marian Weeks said.

Marilyn Edge was supposed to start paying child support and turn the kids over in Georgia on Sunday at noon. Instead, a police officer showed up at Mark Edge's door with the devastating news.

"We were frightened that she wouldn't come with the kids yesterday. Mark and I never dreamed she would do this. We would have thought it was more likely she would hurt Mark, but never thought she would hurt the kids," Weeks said.

Saturday, Marilyn Edge crashed her car into an electrical box outside a Home Depot in Costa Mesa, CA. Police said she tried to strangle herself as rescue crews approached. It was then police said Marilyn Edge told them where they could find her children, 13-year-old Jaelen and 9-year-old Faith, dead inside a Santa Ana hotel room.

"We've worked so hard and all Mark has ever wanted is to just love his children, to have time with his children, to take care of them," Weeks said.

Weeks said Mark Edge was proud of Faith and Jaelen, and thought his current work with disabled adults would help him guide his son.

"He is autistic. Mark always felt he could do a lot more than Marilyn let him do, that Marilyn held him back. Faith is the daughter and was 9, was a tomboy, she was the little athletic one," Weeks said.

It's the end of a long custody dispute that no one saw coming.

"They were her children and she would have them. This is the ultimate control. She took them away from him forever," Weeks said.

Mark Edge is in the hospital for emotional distress.

The children will be brought back to Georgia for burial.

Marilyn Edge is charged with two counts of murder. We reached out to her attorney Mary Ann Korre. Korre said she was shocked by what happened and that she never thought Marilyn Edge was capable of murder.

Woman crashes car in California supermarket parking lot after apparently killing her two kids and leaving bodies in nearby hotel room: cops

Marilyn Edge, 42, of Scottsdale, Ariz., was arrested on suspicion of killing her children after directing Santa Ana, Calif., officers to the Hampton Inn & Suites, where the kids lay dead. She was released from a hospital into police custody on Saturday night.

NYDailyNews.com

September 15, 2013

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Two children found dead in a Southern California hotel room after their suicidal mother crashed her car outside a shopping complex were a 13-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, a police spokesman said Sunday.

The children's mother, Marilyn Edge, 42, of Scottsdale, Ariz., was arrested Saturday and booked on suspicion of murder in the deaths, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said.

Further information, including the names of the children, the motive and the cause of death, was not being released, he said. The children's father lives out-of-state and was not notified of their deaths until Sunday.

Edge was driving a car with Georgia license plates when she crashed into an electrical box outside a shopping complex in Costa Mesa on Saturday morning. Her most recent address was in Arizona, Bertagna said, and it wasn't immediately clear why she had come to Orange County.

After the crash, Edge refused to get out of the car and tried to choke herself with a belt or rope as rescuers worked to free her, he said. Police found propane in Edge's car.

As she was being taken to the hospital, Edge told authorities they could find her children at a hotel in nearby Santa Ana. After officers discovered the bodies, police obtained a search warrant late Saturday for the hotel room and worked overnight on the case, Bertagna said.

"Last night, it was mainly trying to figure out who these people were and dealing with the scene itself," he said.

No weapon had been recovered from the scene, Bertagna said.

Hotel guests were stunned at the discovery at the quiet inn on a sunny weekend in Southern California.

"My goodness, if there's two children involved that's just horrendous to say the least," Mike Ramey, who was staying at the hotel with his fiancée, told KABC-TV. "As a parent, it's just a heartbreaker."

It wasn't immediately clear if Edge had an attorney. She has not yet made a court appearance.