Last week in Winter Haven, Florida a young mother and her young children died during a fire at a local hotel. The news out today is sadder still, the mother set her children on fire and then killed herself.
Priya Master, 25, used gasoline and a lighter to snuff out her and her children's life in a storage room at the Camellia Hotel. Master was the wife of the establishment her husband Bimal, 44 co-owned. The couple and their children lived in an apartment behind the motel's office.
Master and her two children Milan, 1 and Mahi, 3 died on January 15 at the motel on one of the busier streets of Winter Haven.
She left behind no motive of why she killed her children and herself. There was no past history of postpartum depression or spousal abuse.
Masters locked herself and the children into the storage room before igniting the gasoline. The force of the resulting explosion blew the door off its hinges.
Master's sister in law dragged the woman from the room and attempted to save her but t was too late.
The fire was limited to the young bodies in the storage room. The cause of death was determined to be from smoke inhalation and severe burns.
Priya Masters was known by the disabled that stayed at the motel on a weekly basis as a kind woman who went out of her way to check on their needs. She was known in the Indian community as a good wife and mother.
Bimal was in his shower when the fire occurred at about 7 am. He is in a state of shock and finds it very hard to understand that his wife was capable of this kind of act.
The family had been planning a trip to their native India set for the end of February.
"She was making lists of what to bring and who to visit," Patel said. "She was very excited about it."
"Does this sound like someone who would kill herself and her children?"
