From CNN.com: Missing kids mystery ends in dad's death Police conducting murder-suicide investigation, chief says Monday, September 15, 2003 Posted: 9:14 PM EDT (0114 GMT) Regal is in critical condition at Florida Hospital Orlando. (CNN) -- A father suspected of drowning his 2-year-old daughter and attempting to drown his 4-year-old son drove his vehicle into a tractor-trailer on a Florida interstate Monday, killing himself and severely injuring his two other children, Florida police said. The father, Bryan Christopher Randall, left behind a hand-written suicide note in the front seat of his sport utility vehicle. "Dearest family and friends, 'Why?' must be the question on your minds, the following are the reasons, I made too many mistakes, I would not allow those beautiful children to grow up in the manner in which you had raised them, I didn't get the latest job...," Lake Mary Police Chief Richard Beary read from the letter at a news conference. Beary said the note also instructed authorities who should be notified in the case of the father's death, and indicated that he wanted his and the children's remains cremated and the ashes mixed together. Maitland Police Chief Gary Calhoun told CNN's Anderson Cooper the father "didn't want anyone else raising his children if he wasn't going to be doing it." Beary referred to the case as a murder-suicide, saying it "looks like it was a planned event." Randall pulled his 2000 Dodge Durango right into the path of a barreling tractor trailer, which was carrying cars, on Interstate 4 in Lake Mary, near Orlando. The children's mother, Lisa Randall, 41, told authorities she left the four children with their father Friday and he was to return them Sunday. The mother and father had been married 10 years but were getting a divorce. The accident occurred around 11 a.m. Monday, just as police were about to issue an Amber Alert for Randall's vehicle. "It's just a terrible tragedy. You have a family that's been destroyed and the children, they're going to be devastated. This defies explanation. You can't rationalize this," Beary said. The three surviving children remained hospitalized Monday, two of them in critical condition. "That's what we're working on all together. That mom left four children with their father Friday night. Now, two have been found in one place and the other two in his car," said Maitland police spokeswoman Jonni Shardine The case began Sunday morning in the Orlando suburb of Maitland when a fisherman recovered a boy from an office park pond. The boy was alive and whispered to rescuers that his name was Randall. Authorities then put out an alert through the news media Sunday night, including the surviving little boy's photograph because he had not yet been identified. The boy was identified as 4-year-old Regal Randall. He was wearing red shorts and a yellow-and-blue pullover shirt. He was in critical condition at a hospital, according to police. Police later found the body of Regal's 2-year-old sister, Yana, who was wearing a one-piece jumper. Contacted by relatives responding to a police alert, Lisa Randall identified her children Monday morning at the Maitland Police Department. She told police she left Regal and Yana and the two older children -- 6-year-old Julian and 8-year-old Bryan -- with their father Friday night at an unidentified location. She told police all four children were to be returned Sunday night at 8 p.m. Police said Bryan was in critical condition and Julian was in stable condition. Their father was taken to another hospital, where he died, they said.
