CHICAGO (AP) – A woman was charged Tuesday with drowning her two young children in the family bathtub and setting fire to their home, apparently believing they would be better off without her, authorities said.

“She told detectives that she drowned the children because the children would not have a good life with her,” Police Commander Dean Andrews said in announcing the charges – two counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated arson – against 23-year-old Abby Grason.

Issac Younan, 2, and Sandra Younan, 4, were found unresponsive in the bathroom Monday by firefighters and pronounced dead shortly afterward at a hospital, authorities said.

Andrews said Grason allegedly started the fire by putting two aerosol cans in a microwave, then went upstairs to the bathroom and drowned the children while the fire started to burn. She went to a neighbor’s house afterward and asked them to call 911, he said.