Mom Spoke of Demons Before Driving Into Ocean

The details surrounding how a pregnant mother managed to plow her minivan into the ocean with three kids on board just got more bizarre: Police say they pulled Ebony Wilkerson over hours before the incident after her sister reported that she was "not all here," NBC News reports. "She's talking about Jesus, that there's demons in the house," said the sister. "She's got the kids in the car with her." Wilkerson told police, however, she was afraid her ex-husband would find and hurt her and her children, so she was going to her "safe place." And though she wouldn't tell police where that was, they found no reason to detain her, WESH reports.

But two hours later, one of the men to reach the family in the ocean said Wilkerson had "an awful blank look" and her kids were crying, "'Our mommy's trying to kill us, please help.'" Only when two of the kids had been rescued did he realize a baby was also inside. "The kids are like, 'No, there's a baby. There's a baby,'" the man said. "She (the mother) wouldn't say a word." All were eventually saved from some pretty severe waves, and the beach's safety director notes, "If it had been minutes longer, the outcome probably would have been different." Wilkerson is undergoing a mental evaluation, while police say that the children, now in state custody, will be placed with family. (More Florida stories.)