A Florida mom picking up her young children from their father found all three of them shot dead in a suspected murder-suicide.
Olivia Piccolo, 29, made the horrifying discovery Wednesday afternoon while picking up her daughter Aira, 5, and son Remy, 7, from her ex Joseph Dingwall at his house in Cocoa, police said.
“It was her day to have custody of her children and after she got to the house to try to reach… the kids’ father, she went to the home and went inside,” Cocoa Police Chief Evander Collier IV said at a press conference.
“The door was partially ajar and she went inside and found all three deceased.”
The 37-year-old dad was “believed to be responsible for the children’s deaths,” officials wrote in an email to The Post.
Police previously had been called 11 times to Dingwell’s home or various “medical and suspicious activities,” officials said.
A neighbor heard two shots about 12 hours before the Piccolo stumbled upon the unimaginably ghastly scene, but didn’t call police, according to WESH 2 News.
Dingwall was caught on the same neighbor’s doorbell cam pacing around the front of his home with a flashlight a short time after the shots were heard.
“Two gunshots. Two clear gunshots, and it was 12.20 a.m., midnight,” the neighbor, Marcos Garcia, told the outlet.
A GoFundMe page set up to raise money for funeral expenses and support Piccolo had raised more than $15,000 on Friday morning as the community rallied around the bereaved woman.
“We ask that you continue to hold them up in prayer, show support and love because tough times don’t always last, tough people do,” Cocoa Mayor Michael C. Blake reportedly asked the community.
The website, set up by a family friend, remembered Remy as a “strong, kind, and intelligent young boy who loved his video games, music, and friends” who “excelled at anything he put his mind to” and “was a fierce protector of his little sister and his mother.”
It described Aria as a “bright, courageous, and compassionate little girl who loved her squishy dumplings, all animals, and everything pink, just like her mama.
“She was only five years old, with so much growing, learning, loving, and living still ahead of her,” the website said.
A motive for the unspeakable crime had not been publicized.
“Anyone who knew Olivia, even for a short amount of time, knew about her children. You couldn’t know Olivia without knowing how much Remy and Aria meant to her,” the site continued.
“They were her entire world. Her life revolved around them, and every part of her heart belonged to being their mother,” the fundraising website said.
