‘She knew what she was doing’: Man flies home from business trip to find wife killed their two kids, ages 11 and 14, and herself in their $1.4 million home, cops say
Inset from left: Josh James, Emma James and Monika Rubacha (Facebook). Background: Deputies in Manatee County, Florida, investigate after Rubacha allegedly killed her children, Josh and Emma (Manatee County Sheriff’s Office).
A Florida mother killed her 14-year-old son and her 11-year-old daughter before taking her own life while her husband and the children’s father was out of the country on business, authorities say.
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office responded around 8:30 a.m. Thursday to a home in the 8200 block of Pavia Way in Lakewood Ranch near Bradenton after the homeowner called from out of the country to request a welfare check, a press release said.
Deputies entered the home to find Monika Rubacha, 44, Josh James, 14, and Emma James, 11, dead in separate rooms. An investigation revealed Rubacha killed her two children before taking her own life.
Sheriff’s Office spokesman Randy Warren told local Fox affiliate WTVT deputies had not responded to any previous calls at the home. The family reportedly moved from Missouri about three years ago. Warren said the husband and father was on a business trip to South America when he couldn’t get ahold of his wife. That prompted him to call deputies, which led to the grim discovery.
Authorities have not released a motive, although Warren did tell reporters that “there was some planning involved, enough to where [Rubacha] knew what she was doing.”
Warren called the situation “unimaginable.” “This is a horrible thing for the deputies to have to witness,” Warren told the TV station. “Even worse, for the father and the husband, who was on his way back from South America. He flew in [Friday] morning and had to be notified of what happened here. It’s an incredible emotional day for him. It’s not a good scene at all.”
Deputies have not said how the children were killed other than calling it a “violent scene.”
Property records show the home is valued at about $1.4 million.
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