Father kills 2 children, then himself

MIAMI BEACH -- A man threw his two young children to their deaths yesterday off the 15th floor of a South Beach hotel and then himself, police said.

The children, 4 and 8 years old, were on vacation with their family from Alton, Ill., said police spokesman Bobby Hernandez.

The mother of the children told police she and her husband had been having marital problems for the past six months, Hernandez said.

Police did not immediately release the identities of the family members.

The woman heard one of her children screaming from an adjacent room in the hotel, and when she walked into the room, she saw her husband going off the balcony, Hernandez said.

She looked over the railing and saw her husband and her two children lying on a mezzanine roof that is about two floors up.

Hernandez said that despite the marital problems, the family had been celebrating the couple's 10th wedding anniversary.

``It's a terrible tragedy. It's unfortunate that this gentleman was so selfish, and in an effort to get back at his wife, he took the two most loved people in the world away from her," Hernandez said.

Hernandez said the woman did not know why her husband killed the children and himself.

``There was no indication that he would be capable of doing something as horrible as this," Hernandez said. People in neighboring rooms said they did not hear any noises, he said.