In what appears to be a suicide pact, a woman and her two adult children, along with their dog, jumped off the new bridge across Nethravati river in Dakshina Kannada district on Sunday, police said.
The trio was travelling in a car when they stopped the vehicle on the bridge on the Mangaluru-Bengaluru national highway and later jumped into the river, along with the dog, they said, quoting eye-witnesses.
The deceased have been identified as Kavita Mandanna (55), her son Kaushik (22) and daughter Kalpitha (20), they said.
Though the reason for the extreme step taken by the family is not certain, it is assumed that the family was grieving the loss of Kavita's husband and father of the two children Kishan (65).
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The police have recovered a note saying 'miss you' beside the Kishan's corpse purportedly left by the family.
The family belonged to Virajpet in Kodagu district, the police said.
Local people on Saturday saw the three taking the plunge and tried to rescue them, but could only pull Kavita out of the waters, the police said.
She, however, died while being taken to hospital, they said.
Her daughter Kalpita's body was recovered early Monday even as the search for Kaushik's was still on, they said.
The dog has been rescued and was being given treatment in a veterinary hospital.
