Woman Talked of Killing Family, Self, Friends Say

Roxanne Jones, the Reseda woman who shot her three children to death as they slept and then turned the gun on herself, talked of killing herself and taking her children with her for as long as two months before carrying out the threat, police and acquaintances said Thursday.

None of those who heard her discuss suicide took her seriously enough to contact authorities or to steer her toward counseling. Some hints that she was suicidal went unrecognized, apparently misinterpreted as part of her fervent new religious beliefs.

Two weeks before the tragedy, Jones’ 7-year-old son, Jeremiah, told his first-grade teacher that his mother was taking him to “a good place, where God is, and there are no worries.” But the teacher took that to mean a religious retreat.

The bodies of Jones, 32, daughters Brandy Fernandez, 15, and Leticia Fernandez, 13, and Jeremiah were found Wednesday afternoon in the family’s small house on Tampa Avenue in Reseda. Los Angeles police said Jones had shot the children while they slept Tuesday morning, then turned the .22-caliber rifle on herself. The family dog was also shot to death.

Jones, who separated four months ago from her husband, Jeff Jones, 31, left behind a five-page suicide note in which she asked for God’s forgiveness and outlined the family and financial problems that burdened her, police said. They said that Jones had previously told several friends and relatives that she was contemplating suicide.