A terrible tragedy has shaken the small community of Notre-Dame-des-Prairies in Lanaudière: a father is said to have murdered his two children before taking his own life on Saturday afternoon.
• Also read: How to avoid tragedies like that in Lanaudière?
“When the mother arrived at the father of her children, the police informed her of the news. I heard him scream, an inhuman scream. I could never forget him I guess. It was a heartbreaking scene,” said a resident of the sector, Natacha Champagne.
According to our information, the crime was committed on rue Patrick in Notre-Dame-des-Prairies in the middle of the afternoon.
MARTIN ALARIE / QMI AGENCY
Police officers from the Sûreté du Québec were dispatched to the scene, but it was already too late. The bodies of the family man and his two preschool children were found at the crime scene.
According to our sources, the man would have murdered his children before taking his own life. We still don’t know how he got there.
In the neighborhood where the tragedy happened, the neighbors still can’t believe what happened and are overwhelmed by the events.
Natacha Champagne isn’t the only neighbor who was shaken by the screams of the family’s mother as she arrived at the scene.
MARTIN ALARIE / QMI AGENCY
“I heard him scream twice, really heartbreaking screams. “It was sure that it was something serious, but I didn’t think it would be something so gruesome,” Nathalie Taylor told TVA Nouvelles.
According to the testimonies collected, only a few neighbors knew the father of the family. Most didn’t even know he had children.
“I can’t even imagine the poor woman’s condition. I hope she gets a lot of psychological support,” Ms Taylor added, speaking of the children’s mother.
VAT News
On Saturday evening, investigators and forensic technicians were still on site and analyzed the crime scene.
The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) has also set up a command post on Patrick Street to meet potential witnesses.