Ammon News - LONDON (AFP) - A grieving couple jumped to their deaths at a notorious suicide spot in southern Britain with the body of their dead child in a rucksack, police said Tuesday.
Coastguard officers found the bodies of the three about 400 feet (122 metres) down the cliff at Beachy Head, near in Eastbourne on the south England coast, on Monday.
The parents were identified as Neil Puttick, 34 from Westbury in southwest England and his Japanese wife Kazumi, 44. The body of the five-year-old child was found inside a rucksack alongside them.
A second rucksack found contained soft toys.
The parents had taken their own lives, apparently unable to come to terms with the tragic death of their son from illness, police said.
"This is a tragic incident and we extend our sympathies to their family and to the large number of friends and carers affected," Detective Inspector Ian Williams from Sussex Police said.
A hospital official said the seriously ill child had been receiving treatment for pneumococcal meningitis at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.
"When it became clear that Sam had no hope of recovery from his severe infection, he was discharged to his family home on Friday at his parents' request to die peacefully," a spokesman for Bath and North East Somerset NHS said.
"He was certified dead at his home by a doctor at approximately 8pm that evening."