Mom, Son Found Shot in Suspected Bronx Murder-Suicide

The deaths of a mother and her 12-year-old son, found shot in the head on a bed in their Bronx apartment, were being investigated Thursday as a possible murder-suicide.

The bodies were discovered around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday by a relative who went to check on them after not hearing from them for a while, police said Thursday.

They were found lying side by side and a 9-millimeter handgun was found near the mother's body, police said. There were no signs of forced entry at their home in the borough's Morris Heights section.

Police identified the victims as Kenneth Holmes Jr. and Michaela Jackson. But the boy's father identified the mother as Kayla Johnson.

Kenneth Holmes told the Wall Street Journal that he was no longer involved with the boy's mother but that they had an amicable relationship and he saw the boy every Sunday.

"He was autistic, but he had charm. He had a great smile," said Kenneth Holmes.

Holmes said the boy's mother worked as an administrative assistant at Montefiore Hospital and was recently promoted.

Neighbors described her as a hardworking and devoted mother.

"It's very devastating. It doesn't seem like it's reality," Ann McLeod, a next door neighbor who has known Jackson since childhood, told the Journal.

The killings come just days after another suspected murder-suicide in which a mother and her three children were found dead in a Staten Island fire. A fourth child was pulled out alive but later died.