OTTAWA - Neighbours are reeling after a mother and her two children are dead in a suspected double murder-suicide in an upscale Ottawa community.

Sources say Alison Easton and her children Katie, 6, and Alex, 10, were killed Monday in a tragic stabbing in the suburb of Stittsville.

"I'm completely in shock," said Tonya Marczak, a close family friend of the family. Her two children spent the weekend sledding with Katie and Alex.

"I never saw something like this ever happening. This isn't the best way to end the night, that's for sure."

Wiping away tears, Marczak said Katie was a fun-loving, precocious girl who loved to play dress-up with her two daughters and host tea parties.

"They were very happy kids and a very nice family," she said. "Very outgoing and friendly people."

Several police cruisers were stationed outside their home at 25 Granite Ridge Dr., which was cordoned off with police tape.

Police got the call shortly before 6 p.m. about three suspicious deaths at the home.

Neighbours say Alison and her husband Jon Corchis were quiet and kept to themselves, although their kids often went to the park with many of the local kids.

They've lived at the home for several years.

Neighbours say Easton was a stay-at-home mom who always made time to walk the kids to the park behind Stittsville Public, which both kids attended, and would chat with other parents while the children played.

Easton was the head of the local Neighbourhood Watch.

Katie, who just celebrated her 6th birthday last weekend, was in senior kindergarten, while her brother was in Grade 5 at the school.

Neighbours say Corchis is an independent contractor.

"It's going to be a very tough day for the kids at school (Tuesday)," said Marczak. She couldn't muster the courage to tell her children what happened to their favourite playmates.

"I'm just not sure how to tell them," she said.

Ingrid Friesen left to get her kids from daycare nearby at 5:30 p.m. and returned home to chaotic police activity.

"I literally just missed what had transpired," she said.

She hoped it wasn't more serious, but her worst fears were realized.

"I was hoping that wasn't the case," she said.

The weight of last year's murder-suicide, when Theresa Lefebvre was found beaten to death with a bat in her Stittsville home, still lingers in the community.

"This is the last thing we needed again," said one neighbour.