SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — A set of 5-year-old twins were found dead early Friday in a Sanford home after their mother jumped into the waters of Lake Jesup from the State Road 417 bridge, Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said.
Investigators said a motorist called them shortly before 9 a.m. to report a vehicle stopped at the crest of the State Road 417 bridge.
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Deputies said the witness noticed a woman slide herself out of the vehicle’s passenger side window and jump into Lake Jesup in what appeared to be a suicide attempt.
Investigators arrived at the scene moments later and discovered a woman’s body floating in the water and two nearby fishermen.
Lemma said the deputies summoned the help of the fishermen -- one of whom is an off-duty Seminole County firefighter -- and they helped deputies recover the woman’s body.
Deputies identified the woman as Catorreia Hutto, and a well-being check was conducted at her Alexander Avenue home in Sanford.
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Investigators entered the home, where they discovered a 5-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl in bunkbeds.
Lemma said deputies at first thought the children were sleeping, but they determined that the twin siblings -- Ahmed Jackson and Ava Jackson -- were dead.
Investigators did not notice any obvious signs of trauma to their bodies, so the medical examiner’s office will have to conduct toxicology tests to determine how they died.
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Lemma said deputies noticed a gun and live rounds on the floor of the home, but there were no empty cartridges.
Investigators said Hutto’s mother had been in Orlando this past week to have a medical procedure done, and she was driving home to Perry, Florida, when she received a call from her daughter’s phone number at about 10 p.m. Thursday.
She did not see the missed call until later and did not return the phone call because she had assumed one of the children had accidentally called her, Lemma said.
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He said Hutto’s mother told investigators that her daughter had a history of depression, but no one suspected that she was in such a “dire state” that she would be homicidal or suicidal.
Deputies said there was not much food or furniture in the home, suggesting that the family might have been struggling financially.
Lemma said the home had been constructed in recent years through a Habitat for Humanity partnership.
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He said Hutto had been performing clerical work for a temp service as recently as several days ago.
The children, who have special needs, had not been to school since Oct. 13, Lemma said.
He said there is no record of prior violence at the home, and the Florida Department of Children and Families has no history with Hutto.
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