UPDATE 3:00 p.m. Monday, November 22

Missoula Justice of the Peace Alex Beal set bail for Leannah Gardipe, the woman accused of murdering her two children, ages three and five, at $10 million.

Deputy County Attorney Brian Lowney originally asked for $4 million, due to a perception that family money could possibly be used to post her bond.

Judge Beal stated:

"I think you are the greatest risk to our community and additionally to yourself," said Judge Beal. "There is no amount of bail that you could post where you could safely be released from jail, and my job is to make sure that you have no possible hope of posting bond, so I am setting bail at $10 million. I do not know what your financial resources are. I assume that this is a number that you have no possible ability to make, and that is the reason explicitly why I set that."

KGVO reached out to Missoula County Attorney Kirsten Pabst, who was surprised at the $10 million bail, an amount she said had never been set in a Missoula courtroom in her memory. She said the bail amount will undoubtedly be revisited at Ms. Gardipe's District Court arraignment set for December 6.

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Warning: Please be advised the following information is graphic and may be upsetting to readers. 

According to court documents released on Monday morning, a Missoula woman, 34-year-old Leannah Gardipe, has been charged with two counts of deliberate homicide after allegedly cutting the throats of her three and five-year-old children with a steak knife.

According to court documents, the initial report came in "on November 19, 2021, at approximately 8:06 am, Missoula County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called to a report of a homicide in a residence on Patty Ann Drive, Missoula County, Montana. 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."

Court documents state that "later examination of the children’s bodies revealed defensive wounds to their hands and fingers, as well as other knife injuries. The children were later pronounced dead after medical examination."

Gardipe will make her initial appearance in Missoula Justice Court at 2:30 p.m. on Monday on two counts of deliberate homicide.

Montana code annotated states that "a person convicted of the offense of deliberate homicide shall be punished by death as provided in 46-18-301 through 46-18-310, unless the person is less than 18 years of age at the time of the commission of the offense, by life imprisonment, or by imprisonment in the state prison for a term of not less than 10 years or more than 100 years.”

The information in this article was obtained from sources that are publicly available.

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