Children allegedly killed by mother were previously in DHS custody

FOX CHASE (WPVI) -- A vigil is being held Friday night for the two Philadelphia children who were allegedly killed by their mother while on a trip to Florida.

At 7 p.m. a candlelight vigil is planned at Top Notch Tots Child Care in Fox Chase, where the children had attended for the last couple of months.

Workers at the day care say the children were happy and well-adjusted - that is at least until they abruptly never returned late last month.

40-year-old Sophia Hines of Frankford was due in a Florida courtroom Friday to face double murder charges. Police in Miramar are accusing her of suffocating two of her children - 7-month-old St. Leo and 3-year-old Ariel.

Police found the children in the home of relatives on Wednesday. Police there say Hines confessed to suffocating the children with a bed sheet.

Stephanie Zaroff of Top Notch Tots Child Care tells us, "I'm speechless on how a mother could do something like this to her two babies. I'm so disgusted."

Zaroff is a teacher at the Fox Chase day care center where Ariel and St. Leo received care. Action News has confirmed they were receiving extensive services through the city's Department of Human Services and were coming to the day care daily.

A hearing master designated by family court determined in late April that the children could be placed back in the full custody of Sophia Hines and her husband of four months, Anthony Singleton, who is the biological father of St. Leo.

DHS is prohibited by confidentiality laws from disclosing details about the case.