Community Mourns Woman, 2 Children Killed In Double Murder-Suicide

BOSTON (CBS) – A gathering of flowers and cards lines the garage where Erin Pascal and her two children died on Christmas Day in a likely double murder-suicide.

"The pain that that family is feeling right now, I don't even know what to say," Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said Friday.

Investigators believe Pascal threw her 4-year-old daughter Allison and 1-year-old son Andrew off the Renaissance Parking Garage in Boston before jumping herself after her husband had called 911 to report she was suicidal.

Mayor Walsh urged those with suicidal thoughts to call for help.

"You know my heart goes out to the family. It's just such a tragic situation on Christmas," Walsh said.

Pascal was 40-years-old and a graduate of Brown University. For the last six years, she worked in corporate communications at biotech company Sanofi Genzyme in Cambridge.

The deaths mark the third, fourth and fifth at the parking garage in seven months. A memorial of flowers and cards now lines the spot where they died.

"I'd be hard-pressed to think a Christmas goes by where they don't think about this," said Michael MacNeil, head of the Boston EMS Union. He says the Christmas Day scene was scarring for everyone who responded to it. And he can't imagine what life is like for Erin Pascal's husband and other surviving family members.

"Our hearts and prayers go out to this family that are experiencing this tragedy, that are dealing with this," MacNeil said. "The ripple effects are huge."

Northeastern University has increased patrols at all of its parking garages and closed the top two levels at this particular garage for the time being. District Attorney Rachael Rollins said she wants to see a safer and more permanent solution.