Father of drowned girls: 'It's inexplicable' Jose Humberto Taque said he is living a nightmare. His daughters - 1-year-old Lindsay and 5-year-old Marian - are dead. His wife, Lorna Valle, 33, accused of drowning the girls in a bathtub, is in jail, charged with their murder. Taque, 37, said in an interview at his attorney's office in South Pasadena that he is trying to understand how his wife - who was a teenager when they fell in love in Guatemala two decades ago - could turn on the daughters she adored. "It's inexplicable," he said in Spanish. I don't understand what happened. She always took care of them. On Valentine's Day, Valle bought her daughters stuffed teddy bears and balloons. The next morning, authorities said, she tried to drown them in an infant tub. Lindsay died that day, and Marian died last week. On Wednesday afternoon at Funeraria Latino Americana in East Los Angeles, Lindsay and Marian lay in small caskets wearing matching white dresses. Their carefully curled hair was dotted with sparkles and pulled away from their faces with flower headbands. Their bodies had been sprayed with the scent of baby powder. Children's lullabies played as Taque approached the caskets. Over and over, he repeated their names as he wept. Mi Lindsay, mi Marian. Relatives and friends watched a slide show of the sisters: dressed as princesses, driving a play car, swimming in a plastic pool. They will be buried in Guatemala. The girls' cousin and godmother, Cindy Lopez, said she was one of the first to arrive at the house after the drownings. "I wish all this was not real," she said at the funeral home Wednesday. I wish I would just wake up. Valle spoiled Lindsay and Marian, Lopez recalled, buying them whatever they wanted. She rarely called them by name, instead using a term of endearment, "mi amor," she said. Nora Zamora, who took care of Marian while Valle worked, said she was shocked by the deaths. "I can't say anything bad about her," she said. She was a good mom. Taque said he doesn't blame his wife and doesn't want her behind bars. He just wants her to get psychiatric help, he said. Valle was suffering from anxiety and on antidepressants, he said. She also had burning pain in her back and her stomach. "She felt like she was going to die," he said. Nobody listened to her. Valle sought help at both clinics and hospitals, Taque said, but never got the mental health treatment she needed. One day, Taque said, Valle went to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center complaining of anxiety and headaches. She waited eight hours but never saw a mental health worker, he said. Taque is considering whether to file a lawsuit against the county for negligence, according to his attorney, Luis Carrillo. "She fell into a profound abyss and didn't return, and that ended in the tragedy with the girls," Carrillo said. Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health spokeswoman Kathleen Piche called the incident "a great tragedy," but said there is no record of Valle seeking services from the county mental health department. Taque and Valle met as teenagers in Guatemala and, after getting married, immigrated to Los Angeles. They had Marian in 2006 and Lindsay in 2010. Valle worked in a perfume shop and Taque as a gardener. The family spent weekends at the zoo, the movies and Chuck E. Cheese's, Taque said. He said Valle planned big birthday parties, often cooked the girls' favorite meal, spaghetti with meatballs, and made sure they dressed warmly when it was cold. Deputy Public Defender Shelan Joseph, who is representing Valle, said she is looking into whether Valle suffers from mental illness and what services she has received. "My heart goes out to the family," she said. District attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said the evidence in the case is "very compelling." "We plan to proceed with the case that we have," she said.