Ga. Mom Let Her 3 'Little Angels' Get Food with Ex. He Killed Them All in Murder-Suicide, Police Suspect

Police believe Arianny Rodriguez, Carlos Rodriguez and Chadal Rodriguez were killed by their mother's ex-boyfriend Jose Plasencia in a murder-suicide

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

Arianny Arias Rodriguez, 13, Carlos Michelle Rodriguez, 9, and Chadal Rodriguez, 11, were found dead inside 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 children’s mother’s former partner, Jose Plasencia, 56.

At the time of the violence, the children’s mother, Karina Rodriguez, was at a hospital with one of her other children for an unrelated injury, per Gwinnett County police. Plasencia was that child’s father.

According to authorities, all four children and their mother were at the hospital earlier when Plasencia met up with them.

At one point, police say, Karina “agreed to let the three children go” with Plasencia to get food. It wasn't immediately clear how long the children had been with Plasencia.

Around 1 a.m. Wednesday morning, an officer on an area patrol came across what he deemed to be a "suspicious vehicle" on the pedestrian walking trail at the Lucky Shoals Park park, police said in an earlier version of their statement. Inside the vehicle were the four bodies.

While police believe it to be a case of murder-suicide, they say they are still awaiting confirmation from the medical examiner's office.

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In a GoFundMe following the killings, Karina wrote, "My heart is broken by the tragic loss of my three little angels."

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

"I am devastated with my heart in pieces, my world was my children and I was mother and father to them so that they never lacked anything," Karina wrote, "and they took the lives of my little angels from me."

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

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