Mom Gets Life in Prison for Fatally Stabbing Her Children, Ages 3 and 5, and Cutting Their Throats

Leannah J. Gardipe pled guilty in August to killing her children Namaus Sandberg and Evelyn Sandberg

Missoula County Jail

Leannah Jean Gardipe

A Montana woman who pleaded guilty in August to killing her children, ages 3 and 5, has been sentenced to life in prison, according to multiple reports.

Leannah J. Gardipe, 35, killed her children in November 2021 in their Missoula, Mont., home, according to KPAX, Missoulian and NBC Montana.

Missoula authorities responded to the home on Nov. 19 2021 where they found the children, identified in previous court documents as Namaus Sandberg, 5, and Evelyn Sandberg, 3, fatally stabbed and with grave injuries, the Missoulian reports, citing court documents. The children also had “significant cuts to their throats” and defensive wounds on their hands and fingers, KHQ reported in 2021, citing court documents.

Gardipe’s mother called 911 after the 35-year-old told her on the phone that she had “saved her babies,” according to charging documents, the Missoulian reported.

Travis Sandberg, the children’s father, said in a victim impact statement on Monday that he did not have “a choice” when the judge, who was also presiding during a parenting plan hearing, made Gardipe the primary guardian in 2021, the Missoulian reports.

“I begged and pleaded in this exact courtroom,” Travis said. “I pleaded over and over again, if you give her these children, she will hurt them.”

During her sentencing, Gardipe again talked about saving her children, according to the Missoulian.

“I was supposed to die with them,” she reportedly said.

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Court documents show Gardipe had made similar statements prior to the murder.

According to a document filed in February 2021 for a conference hearing on the children’s custody, Gardipe went to the emergency room after she “experienced a serious mental health episode.” She reportedly claimed that she was “hurting her children.”

The document shows Travis had concerns about the children’s safety were they to be left in Gardipe’s care.

An obituary posted after their death mourned the “two beautiful children.”

“Namaus and Evelyn will be sadly missed and forever remembered by their family and friends,” it reads.

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