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So Sad: Mother Sends Text To Be Cremated With 4 Kids Before Killing Them and Herself

May 16th, 2012 - By Brande Victorian
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Source: Abcnews.com

A Port St. John, FL, family is dead after a mother shot and killed her four children before turning the gun on herself.

Thirty-three-year-old mother Tonya Thomas, committed the murders around 4:30 am yesterday in her home, killing her children Joel Johnson, 12, Jazzlyn Johnson, 13, Jaxs Johnson, 15, and Pebbles Johnson, 17. Detectives say the shootings are the worst homicides to take place in Brevard County since 1987.

“This is a little bit different because they were older kids,” Lt. Tod Goodyear of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office told ABC news. “To kill all four, I can’t remember the last time a mom killed this many of her children.”

Around 3 am, Thomas sent a text message to a male coworker that read, “Tell my mom what happened, I want to be cremated with my children.” Goodyear says that suggests the murders were premeditated, but that’s about all they have to go on now.

“A bad part of the investigation is that we may not get the why,” he said. “Unless she left a note somewhere or told somebody, she may have taken it to the grave.”

Before the actual deaths, a neighbor heard gun shots and either two or three of the children fled the house and ran to his doorstep covered in blood and said their mother had shot them. When the mother came out of the house, she told the kids to come back home and for some reason they followed.

“She was very calm, called them in,” Goodyear said. “She didn’t seem to be stressed or mad, just stepped out. She walked out and said ‘come home.’”

The neighbor said he tried to stop the children from going back home and when they didn’t listen he called the police, who heard gunshots upon arrival. Officers found three kids and Thomas dead in the back of the house, Pebbles was pronounced dead in an EMT ambulance. The father of the family lives in Titusville, Fl, and reportedly hadn’t been home in a few months. It was also discovered that the family has a history of domestic violence.

According to a police report, just last month, Jaxs threw a bicycle through a window in the house and threatened Thomas. The next day, when she woke him up for school, he kicked and punched her repeatedly, and when she pushed back they began to scuffle. Later that same day, police were called to the home again and neighbors often complained of hearing shouts and yells coming from the house.

“It’s sad, even if they were troublemakers. It’s very distressing,” Goodyear said. “As a parent, I could never fathom doing this to my kids.”

It’s sounds like the mother may have potentially come to the end of her rope.

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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