A mother who shot dead her three young children inside a car outside their home before turning the gun on herself called her children ‘her life’ in an eerie Facebook post.
The body of Maribel Isela Ibarra, 32, was found on Tuesday night in West Haven, Utah, alongside the remains of her son, 4, and two daughters, 1 and 2.
Police confirmed their deaths were a murder-suicide committed by Ibarra at a press conference on Friday, after reviewing CCTV footage from neighbors.
Ibarra carried out the unthinkable crime overnight on Sunday or Monday, and their bodies were not found until family called 911 at 9:47 pm on Tuesday.
Astonished family said they had no idea Ibarra was struggling with her mental health and there were no signs she was anything but a ‘loving mother’.
Her Facebook bio even read ‘mis hijos son mi vida’ in Spanish, which translates to ‘my children are my life’.
Photos showed Ibarra taking her children to the beach and to meet Santa, and posing on a rhino statue with her son.
But she was clearly shaken by the death of her mother Elvia Ibarra on April 1, at the age of 69, changing her Facebook profile picture to a black mourning ribbon.
Ibarra also changed her name on social media to ‘Jya Canchola’ sometime before the murder-suicide, the meaning of which is unclear.
She moved in with her father, Jose Ibarra, who was married to Elvia for more than 50 years, after her mother’s death and appeared to have split from her husband.
The killer mom came from a large family with roots in Mexico, and had four brothers named Jason, Julio, Christian and Angel, and at least nine nieces and nephews.
Jason is a local real estate agent and father of five daughters, Julio a father-of-four and Angel a biochemical engineer at the University of Utah.
‘We are going through an extremely difficult time, with a pain in our hearts that cannot be explained in words due to the invaluable loss we have suffered, because they were the light of our lives,’ the family said in a statement.
‘As a family, we unfortunately knew nothing about her mental health. We always saw her as a loving mother, which makes this so shocking for us.
‘We do not know the exact reasons why this tragedy happened, and we deeply regret it. This pain is something we wish no one would ever have to go through.’
