PRESTON, Conn. — A woman who picked up her two young grandsons from day care and was supposed to bring them home so the 2-year-old could open his birthday presents instead drove them to a neighboring town and shot and killed the children and herself, state police and family members said.
The bodies of 47-year-old Debra Denison and her grandsons, 2-year-old Alton Perry and 6-month-old Ashton Perry, were found Tuesday night in a car parked near Lake of Isles in Preston, in the southeastern part of the state.
State police called the deaths a double murder-suicide Wednesday, saying they think Denison shot the boys and herself. Autopsies were planned.
Family members said Denison, the boys’ maternal grandmother, had a history of mental health problems. Marcia White, a paternal great-grandmother of the slain boys, said Denison struggled with bouts of depression but seemed to be doing well lately. The boys’ parents told WVIT-TV that Denison had split personalities and WFSB-TV reported that family members described her as having bipolar disorder.
Tuesday was Alton’s second birthday. Denison picked up the children from their day care in North Stonington on Tuesday afternoon and was supposed to bring them home so Alton could open his presents, family members said.
“I wanted him to come home and play with his new toys and have a good day,” Alton’s mother, Brenda Perry, told WVIT-TV.
