Father posted photo of children before killing them in murder suicide

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday

Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

A father posted a photo of himself with his children one hour before he killed them and himself.

The father, Humberto Christian Tovar, is believed to have been suffering from depression. He posted a picture of himself with his children – a 12-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son – an hour before he carried out a murder-suicide on Tuesday, leaving all three dead.

Mr Tovar and Jessica Forero Cardona divorced in August after 12 years of marriage. His mother, Luz Kuznitz, claims the man was suffering from bipolar disorder and was not taking his prescribed medication.

“He didn't take his pills. He never took care of it. He never wanted to take medication therapy,” she told 10 News.

Apparently the condition was so troubling to Ms Kuznitz that she asked her son if he would “ever be able to harm Valeria and Matias”, the man's children.

At the time, he told his mother: “No, never, absolutely not”.

He shot himself and the two children on Tuesday afternoon in Miami Lakes, Florida. Ms Cardona found the bodies at 9pm on Tuesday evening and tried to resuscitate her children, but was unsuccessful.

Nearby Ring doorbell cameras picked up on the mother's frantic cries after she found the bodies.

Ms Cardona was picking her children up that evening and became concerned when she did not hear from them, as they had school the next day. She then travelled to the lake, expecting her husband to have taken the children there. Ms Cardona found the bodies near a concrete bench facing Miami Lakes Drive, according to a police report.

The neighbour whose Ring doorbell picked up the screams, Madga Peña, told NBC 6 Miami that she and her son ran out to help after hearing the screams, and found Ms Cardona trying to revive her son.

“I started looking and I saw the man's body there and I saw the little girl's body there, and the mom was trying to do compressions on the little girl, she even pulled her body towards the son's body to bring them closer and she herself started doing chest compressions on them,” she told the outlet.

She said by that point she was already crying from witnessing the horrific scene.

Ms Peña also tried to help give chest compressions, to no avail.

A GoFundMe has been set up to help Ms Cardona with funeral expenses and mental health care following the experience.

“Jessica did everything she could to save her children,” Kendaly Alvarez, who began the GoFundMe page, wrote. “Now, she’s left with the aftermath and pain of such a devastating experience.”

Police are still investigating the incident but have not presented a motive as of this writing.