Florida police are investigating the death of two 5-year-olds after their mother jumped off a bridge to her death on Friday.
Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said that a motorist was driving across Lake Jesup Bridge in Sanford when they saw a woman in a car slide through the passenger window and jump off into the waters below at about 9 a.m.
Officials later pulled the lifeless body of 31-year-old Catorreia Hutto from the river, said Lemma.
When police went to the woman's home on Alexander Avenue, they said no one answered the door, and they forced their way inside. Inside, they discovered her 5-year-old twins, Ahmed and Ava Jackson, were dead as well.
"Mom jumps off the bridge, commits what is obviously now a suicide and what looks to be a homicide contained within this house," Lemma continued.
A friend of the family provided a photograph of the mother and her children to WESH-TV.
Lemma said that police found a gun and bullets in the home but that the children were not shot.
"It does not appear that there is any blunt trauma. It does not appear that they are the victims of gunfire," he said.
"So there would have to be a method of death that the medical examiner can help us understand through toxicology reports but again, no signs of trauma to the body," Lemma added. "And the two deputies who went in said it looked like two innocent 5-year-olds sleeping."
WESH reported that Hutto had received her home from the Seminole-Apopka Habitat for Humanity charity organization, and she had moved in about a year previous to the incident. Lemma said the home didn't have much food or furniture inside, which led them to believe the family was experiencing financial difficulties.
Police said that Hutto had no history of violence but that she had experienced mental issues her whole life.
Sanford is a city in central Florida with a population of about 61,000 people.
Here's a local news report about the horrible incident:
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