The case against a Fairfax County, Virginia, woman accused of killing her two children last year took a step forward Friday.
Veronica Youngblood, 33, of McLean, is charged in the August 2018 fatal shooting of her two daughters; one was 5 years old and the other was a teenager.
A Fairfax County judge forwarded the case to a grand jury on Friday.
At the time of the killings, Youngblood and the husband she had divorced were involved in a custody battle over the children. She and her daughters were scheduled to move to Missouri, where the ex-husband was being relocated, but it was a move she opposed, according to divorce records.
Last month, Youngblood refused to attend a court hearing as she wouldn’t leave her jail cell. It was the second time she had refused to be in court for her preliminary hearing.
Her defense attorney argued that Youngblood was mentally ill, had tried to commit suicide, and had been speaking incoherently.
A mental evaluation was ordered, and Youngblood was found competent to stand trial.
WTOP’s Neal Augenstein and Megan Cloherty contributed to this report.
