Tragedy hit Florida on Friday, Oct. 20 after a mother killed her five-year-old twins – a boy and a girl – and later jumped off a bridge to her death in what investigators believe to be a murder-suicide.
Reports say Catorreia Hutto, 31, was seen driving to a lake in Oviedo, Florida, on Friday morning where she got out of her car and was seen jumping from the bridge. Her body was later pulled out of the water by a local fisherman.
The suicide triggered a wellness check of Hutto’s five-year-old twins, who were discovered dead at their home in their beds.
Deputies found a gun on the ground in Hutto’s house – where the twins were found – but investigators did not find any obvious signs of trauma to their bodies.
The medical examiner is yet to conduct toxicology tests to determine a cause of death.
Xavier Jackson, the father of the twins identified as Ahmad and Ava Jackson said his children were adorable, describing them as “the sweetest kids” and remembered his daughter as the “talkative” one and his son as the “quiet observer.”
“The few years GOD allowed them here was wonderful,” Xavier said in a GoFundMe created on Saturday, Oct. 21. “It’s so unreal that I have to plain (sic) a funeral for my twin babies.”
“I feel an extreme amount guilt as if I failed them,” Xavier wrote, adding that he is now left wondering if he could have done anything “differently to prevent this.”
According to Sheriff Dennis Lemma, early Friday morning, deputies with the department responded to a call from an eyewitness claiming a motorist had stopped their vehicle on the crest of a bridge.
The caller told officials that a woman seemed to slide out of the passenger window of her vehicle and jump into the St. Johns River in “what appeared to be an attempt at a suicide,” Lemma said.
Once deputies arrived at the scene, they saw a woman floating, Lemma said. Following the discovery, investigators arrived at the family’s home and found Ahmad and Ava, “who appeared at first to be sleeping.” They were later discovered to be deceased inside the home, Lemma said.
A cause of death for the children has not been announced.
Hutto’s mother told authorities that her daughter struggled with depression throughout her life, “but there’s been nothing to indicate that she may act out with this level of violence towards her children” or die by suicide, Lemma added.
“I keep rethinking, and I wish things were different,” Xavier continued in the fundraiser. “I’m torn, I’m broken and my heart is hurting.”
