Woman, two children identified in Lakewood Ranch death investigation

3:45 p.m., Feb. 28

According to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, the three victims were identified as:  Monika Rubacha, 44; Josh James, 14; and Emma James, 11.

5:30 p.m. Feb. 27

Investigators have determined the deaths of a woman and two children in the Lake Club community of Lakewood Ranch were the result of a homicide-suicide, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office reported Friday in an update to its original report. 

The identities of the three victims are being withheld pending notification of additional family members, some of whom live outside the United States. 

The follow-up statement said the victims were a 44-year-old woman and her two children, a 14-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter. 

The sheriff's office said a call was made by the homeowner, who was out of town, to check on the well-being of his wife and the two children. When deputies arrived, they found all three dead, each in a separate room. Investigators determined, based on evidence at the scene, the woman killed the two children and then herself. Investigators are still looking into the circumstances surrounding the incident.

11:10 a.m. Feb. 27

A woman and two children were found dead in a Lakewood Ranch home Thursday night, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office reported on Friday.

According to a deparment spokesman, deputies were sent on a welfare-check call to the 8200 block of Pavia Way in the Lake Club community just north of University Parkway. Once there, at the request of the homeowner, the sheriff’s department said, deputies “observed circumstances that prompted them to enter the residence.’’

Inside, they found the bodies of a woman and two children.

No threat to the community exists, the department said, and all parties involved in the case appear to have been accounted for.

An investigation is under way, as detectives process the scene and review evidence. The medical examiner will determine the official causes and manner of death.

A similar call to Sarasota County Sheriff's Office resulted in the discovery of a man and woman in the Waterside neighborhood to the south last week. One victim in that case was dead on deputies' arrival and the other died at a hospital.