ORANGEBURG, SC — A South Carolina mother who claimed her two children drowned when their car careened into a river was charged with murder yesterday after authorities said she confessed to suffocating the toddlers and then faking the accident.

Sheriff Larry Williams said 29-year-old Shaquan Duley told investigators she was distraught about money troubles and unemployment and that she killed her children by putting her hand over their mouths after a dispute with her own mother. He said Duley then strapped the children into her car and drove it into a river Monday morning.

“This was a young lady that was in trouble, in trouble in more ways than she realized . . . she didn’t know where to turn,” Williams said.

Two-year-old Devean and 18-month-old Ja’van were dead in their child seats by the time divers got to the car Monday near a rural boat landing on the North Edisto River in Orangeburg.