Police: 2-year-old Serenity and 4-day-old Genesis Freeman stabbed to death by jealous father

2-year-old Serenity and 4-day-old Genesis Freeman were found Saturday, March 25, 2017 stabbed to death in a woodsy area of Hoke County, North Carolina. Their father, Tillman Freeman, has been charged with first-degree murder.

Police in North Carolina identified the bodies of two missing children --  2-year-old Serenity and 4-day-old Genesis Freeman -- Saturday morning in a secluded area of Hoke County.

Police said their father -- mad at their mother -- took the children deep into the woods at stabbed them to death with a survival-type knife, killed his newborn and toddler.

Tillman Freeman, 30, was supposed to be watching his two children after their mother, Candice Freeman, was admitted to the hospital for an unspecified reason.

When Candice Freeman found out that her kids were missing, she called police, who asked Tillman Freeman where they were. He told them they were at somebody else's home.

As the children's family began to fear the worst, police fanned out, going door to door searching for kids for nearly three hours.

Tillman Freeman was charged with child abuse and child neglect, but that was upgraded to  first-degree murder when police found the children's bodies in the woods.

Marvina Smith, an aunt of the children, told ABC11  that the children's mother attempted suicide when she was told that her kids had been murdered. 

"I want him to suffer," Smith told the TV station. "The way them kids suffered. I want him to suffer."

Police believe Tillman Freeman thought his wife was cheating on him, which sent him into a violent rage. He suspected the children weren't his, police said. He allegedly drove the children into some secluded woods and stabbed them to death.

“He was mad with her, making those accusations,” Sheriff Hubert Peterkin told the Fayetteville Observer. “This is what we’re being told.”

“Tillman would argue about it and stuff like that,"  James McGeachy, the fiance of Candice's sister, told the newspaper. “And he would come talk to me about it. And I was telling him, ‘Man, Candice ain’t cheating on you. It ain’t no way she’s cheating on you.’ ”