Arkansas ? A woman accused of murdering her three children was distraught over the breakup of her marriage and may have fed them pesticide before smothering them, police said Monday.

Eleazar Paula Mendez, 43, pleaded innocent to three counts of murder and was jailed without bail and placed under a suicide watch. The judge also ordered a psychological evaluation.

Mendez, 43, told investigators she tried to kill herself on Friday by swallowing ant poison, prosecutor Tom Cooper said. She said the children saw her take the pesticide and asked her to kill them, too, he said.

Cooper said he believes Mendez poisoned the children before suffocating them, but he questioned other parts of her account. The children’s bodies were sent for autopsies.

Police found 7-year-old Elvis and 5-year-old twins Samantha and Samuel side-by-side on a bed in their home Saturday after a call from the children’s worried father, Arturo Morales, 37, who lives in New York.

Elsewhere in the house, authorities discovered four cups near a container of ant poison.