Jared Spader News Today

The children, 2-year-old Millie, 6-year-old Jackson and 9-year-old twin girls Ellie and Ivy, will be memorialized at The Crossing in Chesterfield on Friday.

The father of the younger two children called them the "greatest gift"

The father of the younger two children called them the "greatest gift"

A massive house fire in Missouri that killed a woman and her four children is believed to have been a murder-suicide, police said.

The father of the two youngest children killed in Monday’s house fire in Ferguson released a statement after authorities determined the kids and their siblings were the victims of a murder-suicide.

The family of a celebrated Missouri educator who killed herself and her four children Monday say she was driven to “darkness” due to “spurious litigation and unfounded allegations” by her former boyfriend and ex-husband.

Bernadine Birdie Pruessner set her own house on fire in Ferguson, Missouri, police say, killing twins Ellie and Ivy Pruessner, nine, Jackson Spader, five, and Millie Spader, two.

Bernadine "Birdie" Pruessner shared a touching post on Facebook about how precious life is before killing herself and her children in a devastating house fire in Ferguson, Missouri

US News: Bernadine Pruessner, 'Missouri Teacher of the Year', tragically died in a murder-suicide fire with her four children. Legal battles, financial strain,

Questions remain about how things got to a point where a St. Louis area mom murdered herself and her four young children. First Alert 4 Investigates found court records showing a family in the middle of a contentious custody battle.