TEMPLE, TX — A Temple neighborhood is banding together after two small children were found dead in a home on South 35th Street in Temple.
“It’s very hard. You never expect it to happen close to you around you, and when it does it’s an eye opener and it’s tragic. It affects more than just your neighborhood, it affects everything,” said Rocky Valdez, a neighbor.
Police were performing a welfare check when they discovered the two bodies. Officers said the two children had been dead for "some time."
Two other children were found inside the home were placed in the care of Child Protective Services. A woman in a catatonic state was also in the home, and was taken to Baylor Scott and White Hospital. The relationship between the woman and the children is unclear.
There was a National Night Out event already planned for Tuesday before the tragedy. At the event, dozens came to the home to offer prayer for the two young lives cut short.
“With everything that’s going on in the world, tragedies just happening all over the place. It makes you feel like you have to just slow down and enjoy life. Enjoy those who are here with us and praise those, pray for the ones who aren’t here with us,” said Valdez.
Gwendolyn Tyler watched across the street as investigators pieced together how this happened.
“There was a lady that came by and she told me, "I didn’t know them but I brought these roses and I’m going to lay them here." She was almost in tears,” said Tyler.
Tyler cleared a space and a pair of roses blossomed into a much larger memorial. Stuffed animals and flowers are now lit by the soft glow of candles.
“It just makes you realize that you need to know your neighbor. You don’t have to visit them but at least you have to say well I saw them on Friday, I saw them on Thursday so it makes you feel like you have to be closer to your neighborhood,” said Tyler.
