This mother who allegedly stabbed her babies to death with a steak knife told cops she was saving them when she carried out the gruesome killing.

The suspect, named as Leannah J. Gardipe, 34, is currently being held at the Missoula County Jail in the US state of Montana after she was arrested for stabbing her three-year-old daughter and her five-year-old son to death.

The suspect’s mother, who has been named only as H.O., called the police on Friday, 19th November, saying that her daughter had called her to say that she had “saved her babies”.

Her mum then reportedly asked her if she had killed the children and the suspect began crying.

The affidavit filed by the authorities said: “The initial 911 caller, H.O., called to report that her daughter, the Defendant, had called H.O. and reported that she had ‘saved her babies’. H.O. believed the Defendant was referring to the Defendant’s two children, Jane Doe (age 3) and John Doe (age 5). H.O. asked the Defendant if that meant she had killed Jane and John Doe and the Defendant began crying.”

The suspect also reportedly called the police “to report a murder” using a knife.

Gardipe had also allegedly requested medical assistance, claiming she could hear one of the children making a noise.

The police said that responding officers found the children in a bedroom in the house with their throats slit. They also said that it appeared that the children had tried to defend themselves, as they had injuries on their hands and fingers.

The police found a bloodstained steak knife under a bed and a pool of blood in the bedroom of the young girl.

They also reportedly found a letter in the bedroom where they found the children, which said in part that it “was the only way that we all wouldn’t burn, now I’m the only one of us that will.”

The suspect faces deliberate homicide charges on two counts.

If convicted, she could be sentenced to death.