‘My wife just shot her kids,’ Mabank husband tells dispatcher, 911 recordings show

Jacob Henderson wept in agony as he told a 911 dispatcher his wife had killed both their daughters, ages 5 and 7, Wednesday night in Mabank, about 87 miles southeast of Fort Worth.

“My wife just shot her kids,” he told a dispatcher as a woman screams in the background, “What did I do?” The 911 recordings were released Friday by the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office.

Sarah Nicole Henderson, 29, is jailed in Henderson County, charged with two counts of capital murder. Her bond is set at $2 million, Sheriff Botie Hillhouse said Friday, adding that she was arraigned at the scene.

She confessed to the killings, which had been planned for about two weeks, according to a statement released Friday by Hillhouse’s office.

“Over the last 24 hours, the investigation shows that she planned these murders for at least the last two weeks,” Hillhouse said. “It appears she also intended to kill her husband, but the entire crime did not go as planned.”

Jacob Henderson is the stepfather of the two children, Kaylee and Kenlie, WFAA reported.

The two children were asleep in the living room and Jacob Henderson was asleep in bed when the shootings occurred, according to the recordings.

“She was asleep when I went to sleep last night and I woke up, she come in there and she said ‘Babe, I just shot the kids.’ I didn’t want to believe it and I went in there and they were dead,” he says.

“I just need some help.”

A woman screams in the background, “Please shoot me please, I’m sorry.”

The children were both shot in the head, Jacob Henderson told the dispatcher.

Jacob Henderson told the dispatcher that his wife was not under the influence of drugs that night.

Deputies had responded to the home earlier Wednesday night, at about 11:30 p.m., when Jacob Henderson called 911 asking for help with his wife. He called back and canceled the request, but deputies had already arrived and were told the couple was fine, the recordings indicate.

The second call reporting the children had been shot came at 2:24 a.m.

The children were taken to Dallas for autopsies.

The Texas Rangers, Child Protective Services and the Henderson County district attorney’s office are assisting in the investigation.

“The family has had previous contact with CPS in 2010 but not recently,” CPS spokeswoman Marissa Gonzales said Thursday in an email. “Details of those interactions are confidential.”

This story was originally published November 3, 2017 at 1:44 PM with the headline "‘My wife just shot her kids,’ Mabank husband tells dispatcher, 911 recordings show."