INDIAN TRAIL - A mother and her two children were found dead in their Union County home late Sunday in an apparent murder-suicide, sheriff's deputies said.

Detectives believe Amanda Catalina Sherland, 43, shot her children, 9-year-old Ryan Alexander Sherland and 7-year-old Alyssa Nicole Sherland, before turning the 9 mm pistol on herself, Union County Sheriff's Capt. Mike Easley said.

Deputies found the three dead shortly after the woman's ex-husband, Conrad Garfield Sherland, filed missing persons reports around 10 p.m. Sunday, Easley said.

Conrad Sherland told the sheriff's office that Ryan and Alyssa were supposed to spend the weekend at his home in the Mineral Springs area of Union County starting Friday, according to the reports.

He had been trying to reach his ex-wife by phone as early as 9 a.m. Friday to let her know he would be late picking up the children at Hemby Bridge Elementary, where they attended first and fourth grades. Capt. Easley said the children were not in classes on Friday but were seen by a neighbor that afternoon. Later Friday night, according to the reports, Conrad Sherland visited the house. No vehicles were in the driveway and no one answered the door. Only a light in an upstairs room was on.

Amanda Sherland's parents in Florida told her ex-husband they hadn't heard from her or the children, according to the report. After Conrad Sherland filed the report, deputies stopped by the house, in an unfinished phase of homes in the Crismark subdivision off Idlewild Road, Easley said. They entered through the front door, which was unlocked. Upstairs, they found Alyssa in her bedroom and Ryan in his room. Amanda Sherland was beside him on the bed, Easley said.

The sheriff's office declined to release a motive but said a note apparently found at the scene pointed to a murder-suicide. Easley declined to discuss what it said.

Easley said the family had moved from Florida to Union County in August.

The Sherlands had been divorced for four years, according to the sheriff's office. Property records show Amanda Sherland had bought the house that month. Her ex-husband bought a house 10 miles away, in a subdivision outside Mineral Springs, a month later.

A pair of women who came to the door at Conrad Sherland's house said he was too distraught to comment. Several neighbors who lived nearby said they did not know the Sherlands very well.

Grief counselors were on hand Monday at Hemby Bridge Elementary, Union County Public Schools spokeswoman Luan Ingram said.

The deaths follow another apparent murder-suicide four months earlier in nearby Weddington. In that case, police say Christa Higgins Chidester suffocated her 9-year-old daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Higgins, before hanging herself.

In late March, a Monroe mother was fatally shot in what police called a failed suicide pact with her daughter and her daughter's friend. Jennifer Ashleigh McCord, 23, and Linda Kinschasa Maples, 27, were charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of 45-year-old Deborah McCord Gibson. staff writers ryan basen, Shawn Cetrone and deborah hirsch and staff researcher sara klemmer contributed.