Family members in /*Rockland County*/ had called police after getting a distressed phone call from 25-year-old /*Lashanda Armstrong*/ during a heated argument with her boyfriend, 26-year-old /*Jean Pierre*/.
Armstrong then drove her minivan off a boat ramp in /*Newburgh*/ into the /*Hudson River*/ with all four of her children inside.
Thursday, /*Eyewitness News*/ spoke to Armstrong's mother, and brother. "I'm not doing good, my father died in January now in four months I lost three generations of my family, everyday is a struggle for me," said Datrice Armstrong.
As the car sank, Armstrong's 10-year-old son /*Lashaun Armstrong*/ managed to open a window, climb out and swim to shore. A Good Samaritan, /*Mavis Ryan*/, spotted the shivering boy and drove him to the fire department.
"He just kept repeating, 'Please, help my mommy, help my mommy. She's in the water,'" dispatcher /*Ismael Torres*/ said.
Torres tried to get information about where firefighters would find the car.
"The little boy was unable to give me any answers," he said. "You could tell the condition he was in. He was in a state of shock, disbelief. He was very nervous, and he just stated that he was in the water."
Torres sent rescue crews, which found the submerged minivan. Inside were the bodies of Armstrong, 5-year-old /*Landon Pierre*/, 2-year-old /*Lance Pierre*/ and 11-month-old /*Lainaina Pierre*/.
"What were the little ones like? Little grasshoppers, springs full of life and just wish they could have enjoyed it longer," said Lashanda's brother, Lenny.
So far the most chilling account has been from Meave Ryan, the Good Samaritan who encountered Lashaun just moments after he escaped from the sinking minivan.
"As the car was going into the water slowly, she went into the middle row of the back seat and held all of the children together, and said, 'If I'm going to die, you're all going to die with me,'" Ryan said. "She said that two or three times."
Armstrong had been arguing with the father of her three youngest children earlier in the afternoon, Later, after making her deadly decision, she had an apparent change of heart.
"As water was coming into the car, she said, 'I made a mistake, I made a mistake,'" Ryan said.
Even Lashanda's last words written on her Facebook page were haunting: "I'm sorry everyone forgive me please for what I'm gonna do, this is it!"
Forensic experts say that in their delusional state, depressed and suicidal mothers sometimes think they are doing the loving thing by taking their children with them.
Lashaun Armstrong suffered from mild hypothermia and is staying with family members.
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