Military wife charged with attempted murder after children's throats slashed

OLYMPIA, WA -- A military wife faces attempted murder charges after police say she slashed her children's throats with a kitchen knife to keep them quiet for her soldier husband. Police believe she may have been overwhelmed by the demands of caring for a 2-year-old daughter and 6-month-old twins.

Christina E. Booth, 29, was arrested early Sunday morning at her home in Olympia, Wash. on suspicion of attempted murder, ABC affiliate KOMO-TV reports. Her children were stable after surgery at a hospital a half-hour away from Tacoma. They are now in protective custody.

Thomas Booth told police his wife had been "very stressed out" raising the children and was on medication for post-partum depression, according to court papers. He said he and his wife had watched a movie at home Saturday night and each had two large glasses of wine. He described his wife as sufficiently intoxicated that she was slurring her words.

According to the detectives' account, Christina Booth said she had been having a tough time caring for the children. She said her husband "never helps her with the children and that Thomas gets very annoyed when the children cry and make noise," detectives said in the probable cause account.

The woman said the twins started crying after she took the toddler up to bed and "she hit her breaking point," the document said. She described going downstairs to get a knife from the dishwasher, then cutting her toddler daughter's throat with a knife and covering her with blankets so she would be hidden. She then described cutting the twins' throats before calling 911.

"My babies won't calm down, Ive breastfed them, Ive formula fed them, they are not calming down," Booth is heard saying during the 911 call.

"Christina said she knew if she killed all of the kids, the house would be quiet for Thomas," the probable cause document said she told detectives. "During the interview, Christina broke down crying several times, yelled about Thomas never helping with the kids and vomited once. Christina made the comment 'they will be quiet now' several times."

Thomas Booth told detectives that he found the injured twins after he saw his wife wearing only her underwear, crying and screaming, a short time after she took the little girl upstairs to put her to bed. He said grabbed his medical kit and started trying to stop the twins' bleeding with gauze, while yelling at his wife to call 911. Thomas Booth said he saw the toddler in her bed but didn't see anything wrong with her.

Police have said Thomas Booth, who is a member of the 1st Special Forces Group at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, is not suspected of a crime.

Christina Booth faced a judge on Monday in Thurston County Superior Court, KCPQ-TV reports. The judge set her bail at $3 million.

The Aasociated Press contributed to this report.