3 children killed in suspected murder-suicide by their mother’s ex-mother

A Georgia mother is mourning the violent deaths of her three children, ages 9, 11 and 13, whose bodies were found around 1 a.m. Wednesday along with a deceased man in a park in Gwinnett County, Georgia.

Arianny Arias Rodriguez, 13, Carlos Michelle Rodriguez, 9, and Chadal Rodriguez, 11, were found dead in a car with the suspected shooter in what authorities believe was a murder-suicide, Gwinnett County police said in a statement on Wednesday.

Police have identified the suspected shooter as the former partner of the children’s mother, Jose Plasencia, 56.

At the time of the violence, the children’s mother, Karina Rodriguez, was hospitalized with one of her other children for an unrelated injury, Gwinnett County police said. Plasencia was the father of this child.

According to authorities, all four children and their mother were already in the hospital when Plasencia met them.

At some point, police say, Karina “agreed to let the three children go with Plasencia” to get food. It was not immediately clear how long the children had been with Plasencia.

Around 1 a.m. Wednesday morning, an area patrol officer encountered what he thought was a “suspicious vehicle” on the pedestrian path at Lucky Shoals Park, police said in an earlier version of their statement. The four bodies were inside the vehicle.

Although police believe this is a murder-suicide case, they say they are still waiting for confirmation from the coroner.

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In a GoFundMe following the murders, Karina wrote: “The tragic loss of my three little angels breaks my heart.”

She wrote that she is raising funds to have the children buried in her home country, the Dominican Republic.

“I am devastated, my heart is torn to pieces, my world consisted of my children and I was a mother and father to them, so they never lacked for anything,” Karina wrote, “and they gave me my little one’s life Angel taken.”

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or visit thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available around the clock in more than 170 languages.