California mom drowns two children, hangs self, police say

Officers responded to a call Monday and found that a mother drowned her two children and killed herself, Reedley Police said. (Reedley Police Department via Facebook)

A mother who may have suffered from depression drowned her two young children in a bathtub and killed herself in central California, police said Wednesday.

The husband of Vera Lucia Diaz Nunez, 32, removed their children -- 4-year-old boy Octavio Farfan Diaz and 21-month-old Miranda Faran Diaz -- from the bathtub upon coming home from work Monday night, Reedley police told Fox 26 of Fresno.

A woman drowns her two children and kills herself at this apartment in Reedley, Calif., on Monday night. (Fox 26 Fresno)

Nunez hanged herself in an adjacent bedroom, where she was cut down and laid on the floor by her husband before police arrived, the report said.

Officers had responded to a medical aid call at the apartment complex, Lt. Marc Ediger said, according to the Fresno Bee.

Officers discovered the woman and two children were "unresponsive" and pronounced them dead, the report said.

The case was reportedly ruled a murder-suicide.

"There's no indication firearms were used. There's no stab wounds, we can say that," Reedley Police Chief Joe Garza said, according to Fox 26. "Early inspection of the bodies did not show any visible trauma."

Investigators also discovered that Vera had recently been suffering from depression.

Garza said the family was new to Reedley, about 205 miles north of Los Angeles. He said the mother and children might have been living in the town for about a month, but it wasn't immediately clear how long the husband had been living there.

Ediger said there are no outstanding suspects in the case, while Garza said the husband was not considered a suspect.

“Very distraught,” Garza said of the husband’s state of mind. “I think he is still in shock.”