HUDSON OAKS, Texas (AP):

Alejandra Estrada broke into her sister's trailer because she wanted to know why she had not shown up at work. Inside, she found Gilberta Estrada and Gilberta's four young daughters hanging in a closet.

Gilberta Estrada, 25, and three of the girls were dead. The youngest, 8-month-old Evelyn Frayre, was alive but in dire need of medical care.

Alejandra Estrada heard sounds from the infant who was hanging by her tiny neck from the arm of a sweater and quickly pulled the baby out of the noose before calling the police emergency dispatcher, Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said.

On the tape of the emergency call, the hysterical woman can be heard saying in Spanish, "Tell them to hurry because the little girl is dying. My sister hung herself." She also gives the phone to her young daughter, who tells the emergency operator in English that her aunt and cousins are "sick really bad" and need an ambulance.

Good condition

The infant was listed in good condition at a Fort Worth hospital, Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said.

Fowler said the hangings appeared to be murder-suicide because the doors were locked from the inside and a relative said Gilberta Estrada had been depressed. He said they had last been seen alive Monday afternoon outside the trailer and things had appeared normal.

"My mind cannot get around how all this can happen," Fowler said. "It's almost unthinkable."

Filly Echeverria, who said she was the children's godmother, identified the dead children as Maria Teresa Estrada, Janet Frayre and Magaly Frayre. Their ages were five, three and 21 months. Authorities initially said the 21-month-old was two.

Fowler said more information, such as how long they had been dead and whether the children were drugged or suffocated before they were hanged, would be released after autopsies yesterday.