A 40-year-old woman allegedly killed her two minor sons before committing suicide at Raipanka in Gajapati district.
The bodies were found after a family member informed the police that the door of their room was bolted from inside and no one had responded to his knocking yesterday.
The deceased were identified as Jhumuri Patra (40), and her two sons Swambit (6) and Swagat (4).
It is suspected that the woman strangulated her two sons to death and then hanged herself from the ceiling of the room. The incident appeared to have taken place after Wednesday midnight, SDPO (R Udayagiri) R K Sethi said.
The eldest of her three sons was away as he studied in a school near Berhampur, he said. Jhumuri's husband runs a grocery shop in the village.
The SDPO said family dispute might have driven the woman to take the extreme step, but ruled out poverty for the cause of the deaths.
