Mom, 43, shoots dead her son, 10, and leaves her daughter, 16, seriously hurt before turning the gun on herself after posting final Facebook picture of children eating candy canes with caption 'May you all find PEACE'
A Texas mother has shot her two children, killing her 10-year-old son and seriously injuring her 16-year-old daughter, before turning the gun on herself in what police are investigating as a murder-suicide.
Chelsee Dodd, 43, and her 10-year-old son, Trace Dodd, were pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting at a home in the San Antonio suburb of New Braunfels.
Chelsee's 16-year-old daughter was taken to University Hospital to be treated for a serious, potentially life-threatening wound.
Dodd's final Facebook post went up on Tuesday night, just two days before the murder-suicide.
'May you all find PEACE in the New Year! Merry Christmas from The Dodds!' she wrote.
The post was a accompanied by a photo of her son and daughter posing with candy canes.
Police in New Braunfels, Texas, on Thursday found Chelsee Dodd, 43 , and her 10-year-old son dead, and the woman's daughter injured, following a murder-suicide
Final photo: Just two days before the tragedy, Dodd posted on her Facebook this photo of her son and daughter, and wrote in the caption: 'May you all find PEACE in the New Year!'
Police believe Dodd shot her son and daughter before turning the gun on herself
The disturbing incident began unfolding just before 10am on Thursday, when police and paramedics were called to the 500 block of Wilderness Way for a report of a possible shooting.
Responding officers arrived to find three people, two of them children, suffering from gunshot wounds, according to a press release from the New Braunfels Police Department.
According to the police, preliminary results of the investigation indicate that the mother shot her children and then herself.
Dodd worked as a realtor and had been married to her husband for more than 16 years, although he has been absent from her social media posts since last December.
As police worked at the crime scene on Thursday, the nearby Oak Run Middle School, Veramendi Elementary School, and the New Braunfels Christian Academy were placed on 'a very brief lockdown.'
The bodies of the mother and son were found inside their home on Wilderness Way at the Champions Village community
According to a statement from New Braunfels Independent School District Superintendent Randy Moczygemba, Trace Dodd was a fourth-grade student at Veramendi Elementary School, while his older sister is enrolled at New Braunfels High School.
'A crisis counseling team has been assembled at both schools and we encourage you to talk to your child about their feelings upon hearing this news,' Moczygemba wrote.
'Every child will react in different ways and we want to make sure they have the support they need.'