Mom Theresa Riggi Admits Stabbing Three Children to Death in Scotland

An American woman admitted today in a Scottish court that she stabbed her three young children to death while embroiled in a custody dispute with their father.

Theresa Riggi, 47, appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh, where she pleaded guilty to charges of culpable homicide, the Scottish equivalent of manslaughter, on the grounds of diminished responsibility, according to British media reports. She was originally charged with murder.

This undated image made available by Grampian Police in Aberdeen, Scotland, shows Theresa Riggi, 46, with her three children, twin boys, Gianluca and Augustino - no left to right available - and daughter Cecilia.

Grampian Police / AP

Theresa Riggi is shown in an undated image with her three children. She has admitted stabbing them to death.

Police went to Riggi's apartment in Edinburgh on Aug. 4, after reports of a gas explosion in the home. Around the time of the explosion, Riggi herself jumped from a balcony of the second-floor home and was seriously injured. Her attorney said she had been trying to commit suicide.

Inside the home, police found the bodies of her children, 8-year-old twins Austin and Gianluca and 5-year-old Cecilia. They had been stabbed multiple times with a knife. Investigators said they believed the mother had tampered with the stove and caused the explosion in an attempt to cover up the slayings.

Authorities said Riggi had been involved in a bitter custody dispute with the children's father, oil executive Pasquale Riggi. Just 48 hours before children were found dead, she had asked her estranged husband in a phone call if he was going to take the children away. The Daily Mail quoted a prosecutor as saying: "On being told that 'she had left him no choice' she said, 'Say goodbye then,' and hung up."

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Pasquale Riggi said he and his extended family would always remember the children, who will "live in our hearts and minds forever."

"The loss of my three beautiful children has been an overwhelming tragedy," the father said in a statement read by a spokesman for Victim Support Scotland, according to the BBC. "I don't know what lies ahead but wherever life takes me, my friends and family, it will be with the memory of a dreadful loss and with gratitude for all the good times spent with Austin, Luke and Cecilia."

Theresa Riggi is scheduled to be sentenced April 26.