A mother in Canada, is dead after she was given permission to starve herself to avoid a murder trial.

Laurelie, Anais, and Loic 

The mother who is accused of killing her three young children, starved herself to death while in custody before she could be put on trial for her crimes.

Sonia Blanchette, 35, allegedly killed her three children: Laurelie, 5, Loic, 4, and Anais, 2, after losing custody of them.

The children were found dead in her apartment in Blanchette, Drummondville, near Montreal, Quebec. The autopsy revealed that two of the children were drowned in the bathtub while the oldest died of suffocation and drowning.

Blanchette lost custody of the children to their father earlier that year, and she was only allowed to see them on weekends.

Blanchette was charged with first-degree murder and was awaiting trial for more than two years. According to her lawyers, she decided to kill herself rather than facing a jury.

Blanchette was sent to a psychiatric facility, where prison officials reportedly planned to keep her alive by force-feeding her through a tube.

However, her lawyer fought for her right to starve herself to death. Attorney Jean-Pierre Menard said that he intervened on her behalf so that Blanchette be allowed to commit suicide.

Under the law, anyone found mentally competent is authorized to refuse treatment of any kind. According to Menard, Blanchette’s biggest hope was to rejoin her children.

The children's father, Patrick Desautels, said he wanted Blanchette to stay alive in order to face the consequences of her actions, but he admitted that her death saved him the agony of a trial.

Blanchette reportedly weighed about 80 pounds when she died. Staff at the Sacre-Coeur Hospital in Montreal, had sedated her so she would suffer less.