GRUNDY CENTER --- Testimony ended Friday in the Michelle Kehoe first-degree murder trial with a Division of Criminal Investigation agent recounting where the Coralville mother admitted she killed one of her sons and harmed another.

"I don't know, please kill me or lock me up forever," Kehoe told Special Agent Chris Callaway. "I want to die. I can't explain this to anyone, just kill me."

The interview was conducted while Kehoe was recovering at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics from self-inflicted wounds to her neck. She cut her throat along with her two children on Oct. 27 at the Hook-N-Liner pond near Littleton in rural Buchanan County. One son, Seth, 2, died. Another son, Sean, 7, survived his wounds.

Kehoe also is charged with attempted murder and child endangerment resulting in serious injury. The proceedings were moved to Grundy County amid concerns about media coverage hindering her ability to get a fair trial.

During Kehoe's interview with Callaway, she still wasn't able to speak. She instead wrote answers to the agent's questions. They were presented in a Power Point presentation to the court.

Initially, Kehoe told agents that she and her children were kidnapped by a man who somehow crawled into her van. She and the boys were heading up to Sumner to visit her mother, who was in a nursing home. They stopped in Jesup to get snacks and let the kids play. Kehoe said she thought the man got inside her vehicle at the St. Athanasius school, where the playground was.

She described the man as in his 50s, with long, graying hair under a stocking cap. He wore a long trench coat. He allegedly told her to drive east, and eventually, they ended up at the pond by Littleton. She said she tried to fight the man off with pepper spray, but he knocked her out. When she came to, the kids were dead. She said the man then harmed her.

Callaway said many of the details of the story didn't match up with the evidence they already had, including a statement from Sean Kehoe that said it was his mother who cut him.

"The mystery assailant, we didn't think was true," he said.

Kehoe admitted her role after Callaway confronted her. She said she tried to kill herself and intended to kill her boys too.

"It's sickening, isn't it?" she said.

During the testimony, some family members cried. Michelle Kehoe held a tissue in her left hand.

EARLIER STORY:

GRUNDY CENTER - Though he didn't appear in court, Sean Kehoe was able to tell jurors Thursday how his mother allegedly hurt him and killed his 2-year-old brother more than a year ago.

Attorneys for both sides agreed Sean, 7 years old at the time, would not testify in Michelle Kehoe's trial for first-degree murder. Prosecutors, however, played recordings of interviews the boy made with law enforcement officials on Oct. 27, 2008, - one day after Kehoe allegedly slit the two boys' throats near Littleton.

"All I remember is her cutting me with something. I don't know what," Sean said during an interview with the Division of Criminal Investigation.

Kehoe, 36, of Coralville, is also charged with attempted murder and child endangerment resulting in serious injury.

During the first day of testimony, she looked down at a table and covered her mouth whenever a photo of one of her children was shown in court.

Prosecutors allege Kehoe began planning as far back as August 2008. In September, she bought a camouflage hunting knife with a saw attachment and duct tape. She also wrote a note explaining the deaths.

"Her elaborate and meticulous planning of the murder of her two children had thus begun," said Andrew Prosser, an assistant state attorney general.

On Oct. 26, 2008, Kehoe loaded the boys in the family's white minivan and said she was going to Sumner to visit her mother.

Instead, prosecutors said, she went to a secluded pond in Buchanan County, a place she picked out while returning from a previous visit.

Kehoe stopped at a convenience store in Jesup prior to the alleged attack, asking for directions. She said she wanted to let her kids "burn off some energy" at a park, said Trista Gustafson, a clerk at the store.

They stopped at a park and later went out to the pond. Kehoe covered the boys' eyes and mouth with tape and bound their hands, Sean said in the interviews.

At one point in the interview, Sean said he removed the tape and said he saw his mother with Seth.

"She was hurting my baby brother," Sean said.

Sean told investigators he also remembers hearing his brother screaming when their mother allegedly killed him. He then snuck into the van and hid all night.

Jesup firefighters and an Iowa State Highway patrolman found the boy the next morning, covered in blood. Seth's body was about 10 feet away. A first aid kit and blanket were next to him.

"(Sean) said the first aid kit was from him trying to help his brother," said Shawn Even, a firefighter.

Victims' wounds

Robert Savereide, a surgeon at Covenant Medical Center, said Sean had a laceration 8 centimeters long and 2 centimeters wide on his neck. It cut through the first layer of muscle and two veins. It took 45 minutes in surgery to close the wound.

"Fortunately it didn't go any deeper than it did," Savereide said.

Kehoe also cut her own throat deep enough to puncture her trachea, said Rebecca Steinbron, assistant chief of the Jesup Ambulance Service.

"She was breathing through her neck instead of her mouth," Steinbron said.

Kehoe spent several weeks at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

Steinbron was part of the ambulance crew that responded to Debra Hinde's house, which is about a half mile from the pond. Kehoe showed up shortly after 7 a.m. covered in blood.

Kehoe wrote notes

Hinde told jurors she thought Kehoe had been in an accident. Kehoe couldn't talk well, Hinde testified, so she wrote notes on paper. One had the phone number of her husband, Gene Kehoe. The other explained what allegedly happened:

"A man killed my boys and tried to kill me," she wrote.

A note found in the Kehoe family van recounted a similar tale. Michelle said in the note a bearded man with long hair and "beady eyes" had somehow gotten inside the van and waited for them at the gas station. He forced them to drive east, she wrote.

Kehoe said she tried to fight back by spraying the man with pepper spray. He slammed her head against the van, knocking her out. When she awoke, the boys were dead.

"Oh my, no, no, no pulse, lifeless, what will I do?" she wrote.

The note ended with the man returning to the scene.

However, Sean told investigators only his mother and brother were ever at the pond. Prosecutors said Kehoe later admitted the man did not exist and she committed the assaults.

Insanity defense

Andrea Dryer, Kehoe's attorney, indicated she will use a defense of insanity and did not protest most of the information revealed Thursday. Dryer cross-examined a few of the 10 witnesses on minor details.

Most of the people in the gallery were family members of Gene Kehoe, though a couple of Michelle Kehoe's relatives also attended.

The trial moved to Grundy County amid concerns about Kehoe's ability to get a fair trial in Buchanan County. Testimony continues today.