A woman was killed on December 18 in Philadelphia by her partner, who then fled with their toddler triplets.
The cops responded to 911 calls from neighbors who said they heard screaming coming from the house at 19th and Haines Street at around 8 pm.
Police arrived and found Maisah Larkin, 39, dead with multiple gunshots to her head.
Her partner, Stanley Baptiste, 37, was suspected of being her killer. After allegedly shooting Larkin, he left with their children, toddler triplets, a girl and two boys.
The Philadelphia Police Department tweeted that Baptiste and the children were missing, in an attempt to gather clues from neighbors. They wrote that the children were at “special risk of harm or injury.” The tweet has since been deleted.
Baptiste was tracked down later that night in Lansdale, Montgomery County, while inside his 2004 Gold Lincoln Navigator on Valley Forge Road. Police tried to pull his vehicle over, but it slowed down, and when they approached the car, they found Baptiste dead with multiple self-inflicted gunshot wounds to his head.
The three toddlers were not in the car.
After an investigation and search in the area, the children were found on Monday with a friend of the family in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, about 35 miles from Philadelphia. The children were safe and unharmed.
According to police, there had been prior instances of domestic violence in the Baptiste/Larkin household. A neighbor said that Larkin told her that Baptiste has been abusing her and that she wanted to get away from him.
The police are investigating the murder-suicide. The children, now orphans, were placed in the care of another family member.
