Isaac Parmeley

A Pevely mother charged with killing her two children had attempted to "sacrifice" her 2-year-old son before drowning him in a resort fountain, according to court documents. The new details were included in an amended complaint that upgraded 36-year-old Ashley Parmeley’s second-degree murder charge to first-degree murder in her son’s death. Parmeley walked into the Festus Police Department on Tuesday morning and told an officer that she had just killed her two children, according to police. Officers found her 9-year-old daughter, Scarlet, in the trunk of Parmeley’s car, parked in the police station lot. Scarlet had been shot dead. Parmeley told officers she was driving in St. Francois County, pulled off the road near a lake or pond, and shot Scarlet with a rifle, according to the documents. She told police at the station she then drowned her son, Isaac, in the pool of a water fountain at the Timber Creek resort, about 20 miles south of her home. Deputies found the boy dead in the water. In the amended complaint, officers wrote that Parmeley said she had attempted to “sacrifice” Isaac before drowning him at the resort. It was not clear in the documents what she meant by “sacrifice.” But, after she shot Scarlet, she discovered her son was still alive because he started crying, she told police. Parmeley said she found the water fountain at Timber Creek Resort and forced Isaac under the water for four to five minutes. Parmeley was charged Tuesday with murder in her son’s death in Jefferson County. The next day, prosecutors in St. Francois charged her with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in her daughter’s death.