A citizen discovered the double homicide of five-year-old Jineva Driscoll and her mother near Petaluma, Cal. on Friday afternoon. Just one day earlier, relatives had shown police a letter indicating that Mary Alicia Driscoll planned to murder her daughter and then take her own life.
A citizen found the bodies around 2 pm on Friday June 10, 2005. Reports say that a firearm lay across one of the bodies.
Neighbors described Driscoll as a friendly and doting mother. They were shocked at the discovery.
"I had hoped it would have a happy ending, a better ending," said neighbor Don Elium. "You never really know what goes on inside people's lives. ... We live so close to each other, but so far away."
Contra Costa Sheriff's deputies had issued an arrest warrant Friday morning for Driscoll on suspicion of child endangerment.
Driscoll and her daughter were last seen June 2 in Walnut Creek and spotted Tuesday in a Fort Bragg motel.