The search for the mother and her three children ended after authorities recovered their bodies from a lake in Minnesota following a rescue and recovery operation, and authorities said the death is being investigated as a potential murder-suicide.
The child’s father’s body had been found at another location a few hours earlier.
According to Maplewood police, police are investigating what happened amid suspicions of a possible murder-suicide.
Emergency services searched for hours at Lake Vadnais near Minneapolis in the US, beginning around 4 p.m. Friday, police said.
The sequence of events began early that morning when the man’s body was found at a mobile home park in the town of Maplewood.
Police determined that the woman had left with her children and found her car near the lake.
Friends and family gather at Lake Vadnais. Photo: AP
The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office said the body of the first child was recovered from the lake around 7:30 p.m. Friday.
The second child’s body was found just after midnight.
The bodies of the third child and the woman were found around 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
The children – two boys and one girl – were all under five years old.
At a news conference Saturday afternoon, Ramsey County Sheriff Mike Martin said all remains are being taken to the medical examiner’s office, which will release information on the cause of death, NBC reported.
“There is nothing more tragic than the loss of a young child,” Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said Friday.
He added that officials are treating the case at the lake as a “potential triple homicide.”
“That hasn’t changed,” Martin said Saturday.
