By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2026-06-10 20:15:52 | Updated at 2026-06-11 23:45:31
1 day ago
An Oregon woman — whose shocked ex-husband described her as a “great” mother — is charged with attempted murder for allegedly convincing her three pre-school children they were having a sleepover as she pumped exhaust fumes into her car in an alleged murder-suicide plan.
Chardonnay Marie Benavidez, 32, was arrested and faces three counts of first-degree attempted murder for trying to asphyxiate the children and herself but stopping the act by calling 911 and reporting she and her children were bobbing in an out of consciousness, Portland’s KOIN reported.
After allegedly conning the children into the car by saying they could all use the vehicle to have a sleepover and eat popcorn, she apparently had a change of heart.
Police in Keizer, about 50 miles south of Portland, arrived and found Benavidez with her twin two-year-old boys and a four-year-old boy in the living room.
In an attached garage authorities found a “make shift apparatus” running from the car’s exhaust pipe to the insides of the vehicle, according to Fox 12. A gun was also found in the vehicle, police said.
She apparently had been researching suicide methods for a week.
Emergency personnel took all four to a local hospital where they were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning and eventually released. The mother was treated by hospital psychiatric staff and then transported by police to jail.
The incident took place on Saturday evening with Benavidez making her first court appearance on Monday.
According to court documents cited by Fox 12, Benavidez and her children’s father divorced in 2024 with the mother getting sole custody of the children.
Reached by KOIN, father Antonio Benavidez was in shock at the news and was upset hospital authorities didn’t allow him into the treatment rooms at the medical facility.
“She was such a great fucking mother,” he told KOIN 6. “I went to the hospital. They wouldn’t let me in. They wouldn’t give me no information. I ended up getting detained because I was like, ‘Dude, those are my kids back there I’m fucking going in.’”
The father also told the news outlet he only knew his ex-wife tried to harm herself when he got the police report. He said she had made comments about having emotional difficulties but never said anything about potentially harming the children.
“She said it a few times, but I mean, you know, we all do,” he said.
After the incident he went to the home to get their clothes but noticed all their belongings were gone.
“The house is stripped,” he said. “She donated everything.”
Apparently the act had been planned for days.
“The defendant told law enforcement that she had been planning this, researching it for about a week,” a prosecutor told the court. “Prior to doing this, there were multiple options she was considering and landed on this option as one where they would all just fall asleep together.”
A judge denied Benavidez bail, with her next appearance scheduled for later this month. It hasn’t been reported who is now caring for the three boys.
Veteran crime writer Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets , which documents one of the worst cases of child abuse in U.S. history, and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
