A Florida mother fatally shot her two children after losing a custody battle with her ex.
43-year-old Brandy Hutchins of Waverly, Polk County, is believed to have shot dead her daughter Hannah Griner, 19, and son Aiden Hutchins, 10, inside her trailer home before taking her own life.
According to the reports, Brandy’s children had different fathers, whereas the woman just recently lost custody to one of her exes, Aiden’s father.
Hutchins was ordered to hand over Aiden to her ex-husband, Nick Hutchins, by Friday at 6 p.m. and a frantic search for the boy was launched after the mother failed to do so.
Eventually, the police found the mother and her two children dead from a presumed murder-suicide.
“I cannot imagine a more horrific set of circumstances. My heart breaks for all of the family,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.
“We’re devastated for this beautiful 10-year-old child, all because mom did not want to turn the child over to the rightful father pursuant to a court order.
“What’s interesting about this is that she has no criminal history, she has no history of Baker Acts, there is no indication there should be any violence – but it was violent. We deal with hundreds of thousands of court orders, and for one to turn out like this is just almost never – but ‘never’ occurred today.”
The sheriff confirmed that the murder-suicide stemmed from a bitter custody battle and that there is still a lot of investigating to do to get to the bottom of the matter.
The tragic news comes shortly after Aiden’s dad, Nick, spoke out on social media to plead for his child’s safe return after his ex-wife failed to turn him over.
In an update that followed after his son’s death, he wrote:
“It is with a heavy heart that I am writing this to give everyone an update about my son Aiden Hutchins who was missing and taken by his mother on August 25 2023 who decided to murder him. He was killed by her today August 27 2023.
“He will forever be in my heart and did not deserve this. Rest in peace my sweet boy I will see you again. I love you.”
Our thoughts are with the children’s loved ones during this challenging time.