A suburban Richmond man dealing with a custody battle with his estranged wife used flexible tubing to channel the exhaust from a van into a bedroom from the air duct, where he cut his neck and those of his twin three-year-old daughters, authorities stated Monday.

Hanover County deputies got a call just after 3:30 p.m. Saturday from the girls’ mother, Kristina Hooper. When they showed up at the scene, she was sobbing on her knees at the end of the gravel driveway, court records said.

She told deputies, according to a search warrant affidavit returned Monday that her babies were dead, they were in the house.

The Hanover County Sheriff’s Office stated that the exhaust delivered a deadly amount of carbon monoxide into the home. It stated that forty-year-old Robert D. King and twins Caroline and Madison King died as a result of either the exhaust or a combination of that and the slits on their throats.

Fumes overtook the deputies and they had to ventilate the one-story brick ranch home before entering.

Flexible tubing was stuck to the exhaust pipe of the vehicle and snaked into the front bedroom, where the 3 were discovered dead. Authorities removed duct work, 2 notes, a video camera and several other items from the home.

The twins resided with Hooper at another Hanover County address, but both parents were battling for custody, documents said. It did not reveal in the documents why the girls were with their father that day.

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