UPDATE: Mother Suspected of Killing 2 Children, Herself

By: Associated Press Email

Updated: Sun 2:27 PM, Sep 23, 2012

UPDATE - September 23, 2012

CLEARWATER, Florida --

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 five and nine -- 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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CLEARWATER, Florida -- September 22, 2012

Pinellas County authorities say a woman strangled her two children before killing herself.

A sheriff's office statement says an investigation is still ongoing, but it appears that 34-year-old Dawn Brown killed her children and then hung herself.

Deputies responded to the Clearwater home shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday after receiving a call for assistance. Deputies found Brown and her children -- ages five and nine -- deceased in the house.

The children's cause of death will be released pending an autopsy.

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