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Fort Wayne mother pleads guilty to murdering her children in 2016 Amber Alert case

ELKHART, Ind. (WANE) — The Fort Wayne mother who smothered her two children to death in the back seat of a car after abducting them from their grandparents’ home in September has pleaded guilty.

Amber Pasztor pleaded guilty to two counts of murder early Thursday inside an Elkhart County courtroom, NewsChannel 15 has confirmed. As part of the plea, Pasztor admitted to being mentally ill. She faces 130 years at her sentencing June 29.

Pasztor had repeatedly admitted to the Sept. 26, 2016, deaths of her 6-year-old son, Rene Pasztor, and 7-year-old daughter, Liliana Hernandez. She first admitted to NewsChannel 15 during a jailhouse interview in early October that she killed her two children and Frank Macomber, her neighbor along U.S. 33.

Pasztor has not been charged for Macomber’s death. Allen County prosecutors have said that case remains under investigation.

Pasztor has had three competency evaluations to determine if she was fit to stand trial — or plead guilty, as she asked the court for permission to do in a letter late last year. After her third, NewsChannel 15 learned she was found competent. That determination allowed Pasztor to plead guilty Thursday.

Prosecutors were seeking life without the possibility of parole for Pasztor. Her defense team, meanwhile, planned an insanity defense.

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