Tragic Shooting: 32-Year-Old Mother from Utah Murders her Three Kids to Death Before Pulling Trigger on Herself
In a chilling Facebook post, a mother who shot her three young children inside a car outside their house before turning the gun on herself referred to her kids as “her life.”
Tuesday night in West Haven, Utah, Maribel Isela Ibarra, 32, was discovered dead next to the corpses of her two girls, ages one and two, and her son, age four.
Following an examination of neighboring CCTV footage, police said at a press conference on Friday that Ibarra had killed and committed himself.
Ibarra committed the horrific crime during the course of Sunday or Monday night, and it wasn’t until Tuesday at 9:47 p.m. that their relatives called 911 that their remains were discovered.
Ibarra’s family was shocked to learn that they were unaware of her mental health issues and that she appeared to be a “loving mother” only.
In Spanish, her Facebook bio stated, “Mis hijos son mi vida,” which roughly translates to, “My children are my life.”
Ibarra was pictured with her son, posed atop a rhino statue, and bringing her kids to the beach and to see Santa.
But she changed her Facebook profile image to a black mourning ribbon, indicating that she was profoundly disturbed by her mother Elvia Ibarra’s death on April 1 at the age of 69.
Before the murder-suicide, Ibarra also changed her name on social media to “Jya Canchola,” though it’s unclear what that meant.
After her mother passed away, she seemed to have broken up with her husband and moved in with her father, Jose Ibarra, who had been married to Elvia for over 50 years.
With origins in Mexico, the murderous mom came from a huge family with four brothers: Jason, Julio, Christian, and Angel. She also had at least nine nieces and nephews.
Angel is a biochemical engineer at the University of Utah, Julio is a father of four, and Jason is a local real estate agent with five daughters.
“We are enduring an incredibly trying period, filled with an indescribable sorrow in our hearts because of the priceless loss we have experienced—they were the center of our existence,” the family stated in a statement.
Regretfully, as a family, we were unaware of her mental state. We find this shocking because we have always thought of her as a caring mother.
“We sincerely apologize for this tragedy, but we are unsure of the precise causes.” We hope that no one will ever have to endure this suffering.
The family advised anyone experiencing hardships to get assistance rather than holding their suffering inside until it was too late.
“Speak up and have faith that you can get through any challenge.” As a family, we are attempting to get through this, even though we genuinely do not know how to cope with it, as we have stated, our anguish is indescribable,’ they said.
For this reason, even though it seems impossible at this moment, we ask that you respect our pain so that you might assist us in starting the process of healing, little by little.
We have faith that God and the love we receive from the community will sustain us and lead us along a path where we might eventually achieve serenity.
“We are appreciative of the community’s prayers and support.”
Lieutenant Terance Lavely of the Weber County Sheriff’s Office stated that after speaking with the father of the children, authorities were certain that nobody else was involved.
I’m not sure if we’ll ever be able to respond to that query. He remarked, “Maribel would be the best person to respond to that, and obviously we can’t ask her that.”
It was unclear which of the two white SUVs that were parked in front of the residence Ibarra and her kids were discovered in the rear storage area of when police conducted their investigation.
In remembrance, friends, family, and neighbors placed flowers and cuddly toys on the stairs and placed a child’s toy bike on the front yard.
Lieutenant Colby Ryan remarked, “These kinds of cases are very tough on everybody involved, as well as the community.”
“Yes, it’s very difficult for our officers, our deputies, our CSI team, the homicide task force, and neighbors whenever you may have small children die in such a way.”