The bodies of three young children and a woman believed to be their mother have been recovered from a Minnesota lake.
Authorities say the deaths are being investigated as a triple murder-suicide.
The body of the children’s father was found at a different location hours earlier.
Names had not been released as of Saturday afternoon.
The children, all under the age of five, were two boys and a girl.
The chain of events began on Friday morning when the man’s body was found at a mobile home park in the town of Maplewood, near Minneapolis.
Police determined that the woman had left with the children and a search began.
Maplewood Police Lt Joe Steiner said the woman’s car was found near Vadnais Lake at about 4pm on Friday.
The children’s shoes were found on the shore.
The Ramsey County Sheriff’s office said the body of the first child was recovered from the lake at around 7.30pm on Friday.
The second child’s body was found just after midnight.
The bodies of the third child and the woman were found at around 10.30am on Saturday.
The bodies were taken to a pathologist.
“There’s nothing more tragic than the loss of young children,” Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said at a press conference on Friday.
