United States marshals made a gruesome discovery on Wednesday when they went to evict Banita M. Jacks from her home — the decomposed bodies of Ms. Jacks’s four daughters.

On Thursday, the authorities charged Ms. Jacks, 33, with murdering the girls, ages 5, 6, 11 and 17.

Investigators said that Ms. Jacks denied killing her daughters and claimed they had been possessed by demons.

The victims, dead for as long as eight months, were found in two bedrooms

Investigators said Ms. Jacks had told them that she stopped feeding her children and that all of them, starting with her youngest daughter, had died in their sleep over a period of a week to 10 days before her electricity was turned off.

Ms. Jacks’s home is in the city’s poorest ward, which is represented by

Marion S. Barry Jr. “How could this not have been detected by some school officials somewhere?” Mr. Barry asked at the news conference