COCOA, Fla. —
Two children, ages 5 and 7, were found dead in a home with their dad on Wednesday, the Cocoa Police Department said.
The children’s mother called 911 when she got to the home to pick the children up for her turn with them, police said.
The children have been identified as 5-year-old Aria Dingwall and 7-year-old Remy Dingwall.
The father was also found dead. Police believe he killed the children and then himself.
He has been identified as 37-year-old Joseph Kyle Dingwall.
Police said the father was seen in the surveillance video pacing around.
Marcos Garcia
Father seen pacing outside home
‘Two gunshots’
A neighbor had heard shots fired the night before, but authorities were never called.
“Two gunshots. Two clear gunshots, and it was 12.20 a.m., midnight,” said neighbor Marcos Garcia, who told WESH 2 he heard the noises from right across the street.
It’s unclear if what the neighbor heard came from the home with the children.
Police said they had been called to the home 11 times in the past for various reasons.
‘She loved these babies’
WESH 2 News reporter Gail Paschall-Brown spoke with the children’s mother on Thursday.
“The children’s mother, Olivia, tells me she wants everybody to know how much she loved these babies and how amazing they are,” Paschall-Brown said.
Cocoa police Chief Evander Collier IV explained, “It was her day to have custody of her children and after she got to the house to try to reach (…) the kids’ father, she went to the home and went inside. The door was partially ajar and she went inside and found all three deceased.”
Cocoa Mayor Michael C. Blake asked for community support for the family.
“We ask that you continue to hold them up in prayer, show support and love because tough times don’t always last, tough people do,” he said.
Recent murder-suicide cases
Three other apparent murder-suicides have occurred in recent days within Central Florida.
In Orange County, a father stabbed his teenage twins and then died by suicide.
In Palm Coast, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said that a man and a woman died in a murder-suicide while the woman’s daughter and mother were still in the home.
In Merritt Island, an adult couple was found dead at a home on Sykes Point Lane, though officials have still not released the individuals’ names or shared a potential motive behind their deaths. The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office stated in mid-September that the case is believed to be a murder-suicide.