VivirLatino

Authorities are investigating the gruesome murder of a Latino family in St. Lucie, central Florida.

Two adults and two children were found shot to death Friday along an isolated stretch of a Florida highway, with the woman clutching the two children in an apparent attempt to protect them, authorities said.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers got a call Friday morning after someone spotted the bodies of a man, woman, boy and girl off the southbound shoulder of the highway, the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office said.

The adults were both in their 20s or 30s, and the children appeared to be between the ages of 4 and 6, Sheriff Ken Mascara said. All had been shot multiple times, he said.

“It appears to be a Hispanic family,” Mascara said. “The female had both the children clutched in a defensive mode, in an attempt to protect them. It gives the appearance that they were a family traveling.”

The bodies were found relatively close to the freeway, and no car was located, though authorities say that tire marks show that a car was driven off the road. At the time of this post, the victims’ identities remain unknown.

Via / International Herald Tribune