Officials continue to investigate the circumstances of the drowning of two girls in the Neris River. Their mother was reportedly behaving inappropriately and is suspected of murder. As similar cases are on the rise in Lithuania, the Health Ministry promises more help for women suffering from postnatal depression.
Two girls, aged 1 and 2, drowned in the Neris River in Vilnius on Sunday. Their mother was rescued alive from the water and was allegedly trying to drown herself and her two children.
“A pre-trial investigation has been opened into the murder of young children. [...] The mother is currently in a medical institution, and the question of remanding her in custody will be decided in the near future,” said Ramūnas Matonis, a spokesperson for the Police Department.
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The suspect is an employee of the Personnel Administration Division of the Police Department and has been on maternity leave since January 2021. According to Matonis, the mother planned to return to work next year. Her colleagues described her as a hard-working but closed person.
The drowned girls were the only children in the family.
“In this case, the family was not known to the institutions, so help was not provided in time, and it is obvious that help was needed,” said Gedas Batulevičius, Head of the Vilnius Division of the Children’s Rights Service.
The children’s rights specialist say that relatives or various institutions should refer families for help when they see certain changes.
“Medical or educational institutions that see these children on a daily basis should also be empathetic and notice the changes that are taking place. In this particular case, if there were some indications, it might have been possible to react to that,” Batulevičius said.
Every year, more and more women come to the Vilnius Mental Health Centre for postnatal depression treatment, according to psychiatrist Martynas Marcinkevičius. The woman who is suspected of drowning her two children may have also been ill.
“It seems to be psychosis, which is also indicated by the fact that the mother’s behaviour was reportedly inadequate,” he said.
During psychosis, a person is overwhelmed by ideas that do not correspond to reality, noted Arūnas Germanavičius, head of the Vilnius Psychiatric Hospital.
“In such cases, people’s psyche is overwhelmed by ideas that are completely unrealistic, prompted by psychological traumas or certain negative experiences. People try to protect themselves from them and sometimes take very drastic actions,” he said.
“During psychosis, perceptual disturbances often occur, which may manifest as hallucinations, delusions, or very strange sensations in the body. All of these symptoms combine to produce behaviour that cannot be rationally explained, but is often recognisable,” Germanavičius added.
According to him, relatives should monitor the condition of a woman who is about to give birth or has recently given birth.
Last September, a woman with her newborn baby jumped off a bridge and drowned in Lithuania’s Kaunas. On Monday afternoon, the Vilnius Regional Court ordered compulsory treatment to a mother who killed her five-year-old daughter.
These tragedies have prompted the Health Ministry to inform every new mother about postnatal depression and where to get help, said Ignas Rubikas, head of the Mental Head Division.
“There is also a pilot project in 16 municipalities, where over 300 families are receiving services from the beginning of pregnancy until two years after the birth of the child. These services will be available throughout Lithuania from May 2025,” he added.
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