Four children murdered by parents over weekend in Dominican Republic, police say

A national flag flies over a miles-long wall built by the Dominican Republic, that runs along the Haitian border, as seen from Pepillo Salcedo, May 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Four children were murdered by their parents over the weekend in the Dominican Republic, police said Monday in the Caribbean country, which has suffered a spate of such killings.

A 36-year-old woman living on the outskirts of the capital Santa Domingo killed her three children aged seven, nine and 11 by poisoning their fruit juice on Sunday before taking her own life by ingesting the liquid, police said.

Officers found a handwritten note at the scene believed to have been left by the woman but have not disclosed the contents.

On the same day in the capital, a man was arrested on suspicion of suffocating his toddler son, aged one year and eight months.

At least two other cases of suspected filicide -- when a parent intentionally kills their child -- have been reported on the island of nearly 11 million inhabitants so far this month.

A couple was arrested last week in the capital, accused of causing the death of a seven-year-old girl in their care, who showed “signs of physical abuse and barbarity,” according to authorities.

Days earlier, on August 11, a man allegedly hanged his two-year-old son and then took his own life in the northeastern city of Nagua.