The school-aged sisters combed their black hair into ponytails and pulled on cheery shirts decorated with bears and flowers. Their younger brother tugged on a striped shirt. The baby of the family wore a disposable diaper.

Police discovered the decomposing bodies of Rodriguez, 28;, daughters Elsa, 9; Vanessa, 4; Carena, 16 months; and son Angel 3, in the family's Hillcrest home March 26.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore began the autopsies the next morning and has now released the reports to The Frederick News-Post.

Neither Pedro Rodriguez nor any of the children had drugs in their bodies when they died, the medical examiner concluded.

In early April, Frederick Police Department officials confirmed the medical examiner's office had ruled Pedro Rodriguez's death a suicide by hanging and the children's deaths homicides. The three girls died of suffocation and their brother of head trauma. Police concluded that Pedro Rodriguez killed his children.

Pedro Rodriguez and his children were buried April 12 in their hometown of Sensuntepeque, El Salvador.

The children's mother, Deysi Benitez, 25, was last reported seen March 18 outside the family's townhouse on Danielle Drive. Frederick police and FBI officials are still investigating her disappearance.

"We're continuing to follow up on things as necessary but there's been nothing groundbreaking," City Police Chief Kim Dine said. "We're continuing to work the case and use all our available resources."

Father's arm scratched, cut

In the report, the medical examiner noted suffocation could not be completely ruled out as contributing to Angel Rodriguez's death. Head injuries could not be completely excluded as a factor in Carena Rodriguez's death.

Though neighbors had said the children seemed to not always have enough to eat, the report noted Pedro Rodriguez and the children were well-nourished.

Toxicology screening found small concentrations of alcohol, which decomposition naturally produces, in the bodies of all five victims. The medical examiner noted the amounts of ethanol present were consistent with decomposition but the analysis could not completely exclude alcohol consumption before the victims' deaths as a source of the ethanol.

Pedro Rodriguez was wearing blue jeans and a gray fleece pullover over a navy blue shirt when he hanged himself from a second-floor banister. Knotted on the right side of his neck was a quarter-inch-thick yellow braided rope.

The report noted a one-and-a-quarter inch superficial cut on Rodriguez's left forearm, as well as half-inch scratches on the front of his left forearm and left thigh. Rodriguez also had scrapes and bruises on the left side of his back.

The children were found dressed in street clothes, covered with comforters on upstairs beds and lying on their backs.

Angel Rodriguez was wearing a white, green and brown striped shirt and gray sweatpants when he was found. He suffered from a fracture on the right lower part of his skull, leading to bleeding in his brain.

Elsa, her long black hair tied back with a black scrunchy, was wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt decorated with bears and purple fleece pants.

Vanessa, her named spelled "Vanesa" in the autopsy report, had been wearing a blue shirt decorated with flowers and animal print velour pants. Her long black hair was pulled into a ponytail.

Carena, whose name was spelled "Karina" in the autopsy report, wore a pink sweater with a lamb and flowers stitched on the front, over a purple shirt with flowers. The toddler, her black hair tied back with a pink ponytail holder, was wearing purple pants and a diaper.