A Florida, USA mother picking up her young children from their father discovered all three shot dead in a suspected murder-suicide on Wednesday afternoon.
Olivia Piccolo, 29, made the discovery when arriving at the Cocoa, Florida, home of her ex-husband, 37-year-old Joseph Dingwall, to collect her seven-year-old son, Remy, and five-year-old daughter, Aria.
“It was her day to have custody of her children and after she got to the house to try to reach… the kids’ father, she went to the home and went inside,” Cocoa Police Chief Evander Collier IV said during a press conference. “The door was partially ajar and she went inside and found all three deceased.”
Law enforcement officials confirmed that Dingwall is believed to be responsible for the children’s deaths. Police records show officers had previously been called to Dingwall’s residence 11 times for various medical calls and suspicious activities.
A neighbor reported hearing two gunshots at approximately 12:20 a.m.—roughly twelve hours before Piccolo discovered the scene—and noted that doorbell camera footage captured Dingwall pacing outside the residence with a flashlight shortly after the shots were fired.
“Two gunshots. Two clear gunshots, and it was 12.20 a.m., midnight,” the neighbor, Marcos Garcia, reported.
A community fundraising effort established to cover funeral expenses and support Piccolo described the siblings as the center of their mother’s life.
“Anyone who knew Olivia, even for a short amount of time, knew about her children. You couldn’t know Olivia without knowing how much Remy and Aria meant to her,” the organizers wrote on the fundraising page. “They were her entire world. Her life revolved around them, and every part of her heart belonged to being their mother.”
The Cocoa Police Department has not publicly disclosed a motive as the investigation remains ongoing.