Mom Suffocates Baby Son, Kills Self In York, Pa. Murder-Suicide

YORK, Pa. (AP) — Police in Pennsylvania are investigating after they say a 40-year-old mother intentionally suffocated her 12-month-old son before taking her own life in an apparent murder-suicide.

The bodies were found by officers who were dispatched to Sheri Shermeyer's Shrewsbury Township home for a welfare check on Monday afternoon.

Shermeyer was found lying in her bed, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Police say the woman intentionally suffocated her son, John, who most likely died of asphyxiation.

Shermeyer, according to the York Dispatch, apparently wrote a 700-word suicide note on Facebook Monday. It said she had "been slowly dying inside," felt "confused" and "torn down," and hardly went out in public or socialized.

A coroner was sent to the home just before 2 p.m. Autopsies are scheduled for Wednesday.

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