ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The bodies of three young children and their mother were found Friday night and Saturday morning at a Vadnais Heights, Minn., lake. The Ramsey County sheriff's office is investigating the incident as a possible triple murder-suicide.
The body of a boy was pulled from Vadnais Lake late Friday, and the body of another boy was found after midnight Saturday. Authorities continued to search and found the bodies of the children's mother and a girl Saturday morning. All three children were believed to be younger than 6 years, authorities said.
The Ramsey County medical examiner's office will be working to determine their cause and manner of death, Undersheriff Mike Martin said Saturday.
The tragedy began hours earlier on Friday and in a different north metro suburb.
"At 10:30 this morning, Maplewood police responded to a report of a suicide in the 1300 block of Pearson," Maplewood police Lt. Joe Steiner said Friday night. "When they arrived, they found a deceased adult male ... in relation to that investigation, Maplewood police responded to this location on information of a potential murder-suicide."
The woman found in the lake is believed to be the wife of the deceased man, authorities said.
An investigation determined that she had left with her three children, and Maplewood police tried to contact her and locate her during the day, said Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher. Information developed that her car was near Lake Vadnais, and it was later found parked between two major lobes of the 600-acre lake.
"If you're wondering why we suspect the children are here, the children's shoes were here," Fletcher said Friday.
Some two dozen relatives and friends of the family huddled near the lake as authorities -- including a State Patrol helicopter, the sheriff's office and its dive team, dogs, police and fire crews in boats, and others -- continued the search on the lake and the surrounding land Friday night. The water search was initially focusing on the shallower west half of the lake. The east half is far deeper, up to 50 feet in spots.
Late Friday night, as the search continued, relatives and friends of the Hmong family started a small fire, which one man said was an appeal to the spirits to help them find the bodies.
For most people, "even imagining this is going to be horrific just to think about," Fletcher said.
"The mental health aspect of people ... it's just tough to get your mind wrapped around how someone does that," Fletcher said during "Live on Patrol," his livestreamed patrol Friday night with Deputy Pat Scott.
"If you're mentally healthy, it's unimaginable," Scott said.
Scott said it also "takes a toll on those who respond."