Two children found dead along riverbank

ST. LOUIS -- Emergency responders found two toddlers dead, submerged in mud along a Mississippi riverbank Monday afternoon, next to their 25-year-old father's parked car.

The father was described by St. Louis police chief Joe Mokwa as "incoherent" and was hospitalized for psychiatric observation.

Mokwa said police found the two children dead on the riverbank in North Riverfront Park, south of the Chain of Rocks Bridge, after receiving a call about 3:20 p.m. Their father's car was found on a paved ramp at the river's edge that is used to drop small boats into the water.

Mokwa said the children, a 1-year-old boy and 2-year-old girl, were found covered in mud, "one face down, one face up."

The father was picked up by police near a relative's house, about two miles from the scene. "He is very distraught. He is emotionally shattered, so we're going to make sure he is fit for confinement," Mokwa said.

Police said the father arrived at his sister's house, and told an aunt and sister that the children were dead.

The women rushed to the park, without the father, and found the bodies in the mud.

St. Louis County police told http://www.stltoday.com, the Web site of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, that the man was hysterical and became so combative while being questioned that they subdued him with a Taser.

Mokwa said police were investigating the incident as a homicide but have no motive. He said he would not release the father's name because no charges have been filed, and said the mothers of the two children had not yet been notified of the deaths.

"It's hard to imagine that this was an accident," he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "According to family members, the man seemed OK this morning. We don't know what happened between then and this afternoon."