Mum shoots her son and daughter while husband was away on business trip
A mother from Florida has ‘violently’ killed her two children while her husband was on a business trip, police have said.
Monika Rubacha, 44, was found dead with her children, Josh James, 14 and 11-year-old Emma James, at their $1.7 million (£1.26 million) home.
Her husband, Richard James, was on a business trip in South America when he contacted local authorities to check on his house after he did not hear from his family for more than a day.
Officers arrived at the Lakewood Ranch house at around 8.30pm on Thursday to discover three dead bodies with visible ‘traumatic’ injuries, police said.
Sheriff spokesperson, Randy Warren, told The New York Post: ‘Right away, you could tell something wasn’t right.
‘There were signs of homicidal violence.’
An investigation into their deaths is underway, with police confirming that Monika had killed each of her children in separate rooms before killing herself.
Local outlet US Weekly reported that officers found the mother had shot both her children before taking her own life.
Meanwhile, the Herald-Tribune reported that police believe Josh may have died earlier than his sister and mother.
The exact cause of their deaths has not yet been determined, the medical examiner said.
Police have said no one else was involved in the incident.
Sheriff spokesperson Warren added: ‘I can tell you that this is a violent scene,’ WFLA reported.
‘It’s horrible to even imagine what would have been going through the mind of this mother that led up to this.’
He said the family of four moved to the area around three years ago, adding that there were no previous incidents linked to the address.
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