Police in Danbury, Connecticut, say that three children and a woman were found dead on a property on Wednesday.
When officers arrived on the scene they found three children between the ages of 5 and 12 in a home, and a woman in a shed on the same property, News 12 Connecticut reported. Police said that they think the victims are related, but they haven’t identified any of the deceased, or released information about their causes of death.
News 12 reported that police responded to the home after receiving a call from someone who was distraught.
Danbury Police Chief Patrick Ridenhour said that local prosecutors are also investigating the incident.
“And they’ll be talking to any neighbors and any possible witnesses and getting some background on the victims and talking to family members,” the chief said, according to News 12. “It’s a really extremely difficult time for many of the officers, especially those who had to go inside. We are ensuring their mental health and well-being is being taken care of at this time, as well,” he added.
Newsweek has reached out to the Danbury Police Department for further comment.
In a separate incident this month, the bodies of bodies of three children and their mother were recovered from a lake in Minnesota. Police called the incident a “likely homicide” Police began searching for the woman after they learned that she was reported to be suicidal.
In May, police in Michigan said they believed a 51-year-old father was behind the deaths of a mother and their three children. The children who were killed were ages 6, 4 and 3.
“[The] 51-year-old male, who is believed to have turned the firearm on himself, [has] a gunshot wound to the head,” a sheriff’s office wrote in a statement at the time, noting the man had been taken to the hospital in critical condition.
In December, police in Texas found five children inside a home a husband and wife died in an apparent murder-suicide. The children were uninjured during the incident and between the ages of 7 and 16.
“The wife had signs of blunt trauma and the husband appeared to have a self-inflicted gunshot,” the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement at the time.
In Missouri in January, police said that a family of four was found dead in a home. Police also said that they didn’t believe that foul play was involved, but said that alternative heating source could have been behind the cause of their deaths.