Danbury Schools Offer Counseling After Shocking Death Of 3 Children

DANBURY, CT — The Public Schools will be making counseling services available for students and staff in the wake of the horrific deaths of three Danbury children.

Investigators say Junior Panjon, 12; Joselyn Panjon, 10; and Jonael Panjon, 5, were strangled by their mother, Sonia Loja, 36, Wednesday night at the family's home on Whaley Street. The mother's body was found in a shed outside the home, where preliminary findings indicate she killed herself.

Two of the three children killed were students in the Danbury Public Schools, according to Superintendent Kevin Walston.

"Losing children to violence is becoming far too common in our nation and events such as these shine a light on the challenges communities face, specifically around mental health, that leave so many people vulnerable," Walston said in a statement released Thursday afternoon.

The Public Schools have assembled a Pupil Services team that will be available at Morris Street School and Westside Middle School on Monday from 10 a.m. to noon.

Pledging that mental health and counseling services will be provided by the schools and the city, Mayor Dean Esposito said, "Our community grieves for the innocent lives taken from us. We will get through this together."

Danbury police officers were first called to the home around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday for a well-being check by a caller who was "distraught and crying," according to police. They found the Panjon children dead inside the home.

Investigators later learned that the mother and children lived at the residence with two other adults, who were not present when the officers arrived.

According to a report in the New York Post, Loja ran an illegal daycare out of her house. She called the parents of the roughly 10 kids on the day of the tragedy to tell them not to drop their children off.