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On Friday morning, October 20, the Seminole County Sheriff's office received a 911 call from bystanders who saw a woman, later identified as Catorreia Hutto of Sanford, jump into a river from on top of a bridge. The 31-year-old woman was dead on the scene, and her body was recovered.
Identification of the deceased woman prompted a wellness check on the woman's home after information revealed that Catorreia Hutto was the mother of five-year-old twin children, a boy, and a girl. Both her children were found deceased in her house. The exact cause of death is not known at the moment. The mother reportedly had a history of depression.
Catorreia Hutto struggled with lifelong depression
The Seminole County Sheriff's Office released a news release regarding the Incident on the same day. At around 8:45 a.m. on Friday, deputies received multiple 911 calls from concerned motorists about a woman who had parked her silver car on the "shoulder of S.R 417 bridge" and climbed out the side window. Motorists reported that the woman jumped from the bridge onto Lake Jesup.
Officers responded to the calls, only to find the woman's body floating in the lake. Officers took boaters' help to retrieve the body, and the woman was pronounced dead at the scene. The deceased woman was identified as Catorreia Hutto, a 31-year-old Sanford resident.
Officers discovered that Catorreia Hutto had twin 5-year-old children, Ahmad and Ava Jackson, who were not at the scene. On checking the woman's home address, both children were found deceased. The cause of death has not been released yet, as the autopsy results are pending. There were no signs of overt wounds or blunt force trauma.
Later in the day, Sheriff Dennis M. Lemma held a news conference calling the situation a "murder/suicide." He also said that deputies had recovered a firearm from the bedroom floor with live rounds on the ground. He revealed that Catorreia Hutto's house was a Habitat for Humanity project. He further stated:
"There was not much food inside the house, there was not much furniture inside the house, which looked like the family may have been struggling financially. But there is no indication that that is any of the concerns whatsoever,"
Catorreia Hutto was reported to be a temp agency worker. Sheriff Lemma also revealed that the deceased woman's last phone call was an unanswered call to her mother. Her mother admitted to the police department that the woman had struggled throughout her life with depression, but there was no indication of any potential violent or suicidal outburst.
The Sheriff said that the children suffered from disabilities and that they went to a special-needs school. He also revealed that the children were last seen in school on October 13.
Netizens talk about the importance of mental health
The tragedy deeply shook a lot of netizens who felt sorry for the kids, their mother, and their grandmother. People stressed the importance of mental health and not neglecting or isolating the people who need you the most. Here are a few reactions from The Neighborhood Talk's Instagram post about the Incident:
As mentioned above, the exact cause of death of both children has not been revealed yet, as any autopsy results are yet to be published. Sheriff Lemma reported that the deputies only realized they were deceased after checking the kids' vital signs.
