‘Horrible circumstances’: Polk County mother kills her two children herself, officials say

POLK COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — The Polk County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a “double homicide” after they believe a mother killed her two children in front of herself on Sunday afternoon.

According to the sheriff’s office, the mother killed her 19-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son after a custody battle with the boy’s father, who lives in Maine.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said a judge ordered the mother, 43-year-old Brandy Hutchins, to hand her 10-year-old son over to a PCSO County police station by 6 p.m. Friday, but she never did have.

Judd said officers worked all weekend to locate the 10-year-old boy, but on Sunday afternoon officers made a terrifying discovery.

At around 12:30pm officers were called to a mobile home in the Waverly area of ​​Lake Wales where they found Hutchins and their two children, who appeared to have died in a murder-suicide.

“I can’t think of a more horrific circumstance,” Sheriff Judd said. “My heart breaks for the whole family. We are devastated by this 10-year-old child because, following a court order, the mother did not want the child to be handed over to the rightful father.”

Judd said Hutchins had no criminal record and there was no evidence of violent threats in the court records.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office will continue the investigation into this double homicide-suicide.

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