Christmas Day deaths treated as murder-suicide

A mother found dead with her two young children on a Boston sidewalk outside a high-rise parking garage is being investigated as a murder-suicide, authorities have confirmed.

Erin Pascal (40), her 4-year-old daughter Allison and 16-month-old son Andrew, were found on Christmas Day.

"The evidence suggests" the mother jumped to her death after causing her two children to fall to their deaths, Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins told a news conference on Thursday.

Pascal, her son and daughter were residents of Boston's West Roxbury neighbourhood. Authorities have provided no information about the woman's marital status or the identity of the children's father.

The three were found lifeless on the pavement at the base of the Renaissance Park Garage on Wednesday afternoon and were pronounced dead at an area hospital a short time later.

"Today is an extremely sad day as we begin to put together the pieces of a tragedy that took place yesterday, on Christmas," Rollins said.

"For a parent to come to the place in which they harm their children in this way indicates that their mental health struggles were severe and in need of immediate supports."

She urged anyone who is suffering from suicidal thoughts or knows someone else who is to reach out to various mental health hotlines for help.

Rollins said no suicide notes in connection with the Pascal case have been found, and there were no known complaints lodged with authorities about the mother.

The prosecutor described the scene as "awful" and especially heartrending because it occurred on Christmas.

Aerial TV news footage from the scene the day of the tragedy showed investigators huddled around a sport utility vehicle left parked on the garage rooftop beside the structure's retaining wall, about nine levels up from the street.