CLEARWATER, Fla. – Neighbors and friends say the woman accused of killing her two young children and then hanging herself in Florida had been in financial and legal trouble.
Records show 34-year-old Dawn Brown was charged last year with welfare fraud. Friends and neighbors told several media outlets the family didn't have electricity at times in their Clearwater home and were facing foreclosure.
Authorities continued their investigation Sunday, a day after finding Brown and her children -- ages 5 and 9 -- dead in their home.
A sheriff's office statement says they discovered the bodies after receiving a call for help from 36-year-old Murphy Brown, the father of the children and Dawn's husband. Authorities believe she killed the children sometime Friday night before hanging herself.
An autopsy will be done on the children to determine exactly how they died.
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