A woman in West Virginia called for help saying her husband had tried to drown her and their two children, ages 3 and 6. Her husband and father of two kids, Leslie Kelly, 36, was quickly arrested and he tried to justify himself in the following way:

He said, ‘God told me to do this.’ God’s not going to tell somebody to drown their own kids,” said Deputy Barry Mynes Jr. of the Logan County Sheriff’s Department. He said, ‘I held them under water because I want them to go to Heaven.”

Deputies entered the residence and when they found Kelly they said he told them, “I’m ready for it. I know what I have done.”

Deputies entered the residence and when they found Kelly they said he told them, "I'm ready for it. I know what I have done." Leslie Kelly is charged with three counts of domestic battery, two counts of child abuse creating risk and three counts of attempted murder, according to a news release from the Logan County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputy Barry Mynes Jr. with the Logan County Sheriff's Office, as cited by WSAZ, said Kelly repeatedly told him he was trying to send his children to heaven.

"And to me, that gave me the impression that he was just wanting to hold them under until they would go to heaven," Mynes says.

"We said were they not crying and screaming, trying to get away from you? He said 'yeah they were, but I was just holding them under water, trying to baptize them, because I want them to go to heaven,' " Mynes said, adding: "He made remarks that God told him to do that. I have a close relationship with Jesus Christ and there's no doubt in my mind that is false what he said."

I wonder how close that relationship was in Kelly’s case. Maybe it was even closer because Kelly was trying to send his children directly to heaven.

Photo Credits: Patheos