Kalamazoo police are investigating a double murder-suicide in which a 44-year-old woman “intentionally,” police allege, drove into the Kalamazoo River with her twin girls, both 9.

The submerged car was found in the river near Verburg Park.

At about 10:45 p.m. Monday, Kalamazoo Public Safety officers responded to a call from two young girls “under 10” at a drugstore “who were upset,” said Karianne Thomas, director of public safety for the city of about 76,000 people.

The girls were at a Walgreens on Riverview and Gull, right across the street from the public safety building. Investigators said the girls said a family member had driven her vehicle into the river — with her two children inside.

It turns out the girls had been in the vehicle earlier in the day, but had been let out, leaving the mom and her twins in the car, Thomas said.

“These are very young girls,” Thomas said. “They did not know a time frame. They did not know where it occurred. They had been picked up by passersby who saw they were upset and brought them to a public safety station, and then we had to piece it together from there. It’s a very traumatic event for these young girls. We need to give them space to deal with that.”

Officers tried to learn where the car had gone into the river, but the girls didn’t know.

Officers went to Verburg Park. “Officers hit it right on the head the first time,” Thomas said.

It was dark, and the park is not well-lit. Officers took a boat into the water. The vehicle was “totally submerged,” but they spotted it and, minutes later, the bodies of the mother and one of the girls.

It was about midnight at that point. The second girl’s body was found at about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Police believe the drowning was intentional, Thomas said.

“That part of the Kalamazoo River, and that park, it’s not along a road. It’s not (where someone would) veer off the road and go into the river there. It wasn’t an accident,” Thomas said.

Thomas added: “What we’re all dealing with now is ‘why?’ And we just don’t have those answers. I don’t know if we ever will.”

Police will put together a timeline of the situation and learn more about the mother, Thomas said.

“Everyone is suffering with something,” Thomas said. “We just don’t know. But hopefully we can reach out to those we think are, and prevent tragedies like this in the future.”