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NORTON - Police say an ex-boyfriend shot to death a 44-year-old woman and critically wounded two of her daughters before fleeing to railroad tracks in Walpole, where he turned the gun on himself, shooting himself to death.

The woman and girls, ages 12 and 15, were found in a home at 384 Reservoir St. in the Norton Grove neighborhood.

Norton Detective Sgt. Brian Clark said in a news conference late this afternoon that investigators have not determined when the triple shooting occurred, but said it probably happened within the past day.

The suspect in the shootings, Robert McDermott, 39, formerly of Mansfield and Norton, killed himself early this morning on MBTA tracks in Walpole.

Clark said the gun used in the suicide was the same used in the triple shooting in Norton. Police declined to identify the dead woman or the girls, citing family concerns.

However, neighbors identified the woman as Elizabeth Cann. A woman named Elizabeth Cann is listed in online directories as residing at 384 Reservoir.

The Bristol County District Attorney's Office said the wounded girls were Danielle Cann, 15, and Brittany Cann, 12.

Police said the woman and girls all had been shot once in the head. The woman was found dead in her bed in a second-floor bedroom and the girls were sprawled in a hallway outside the bedroom.

The girls were reported in critical condition this afternoon at Rhode Island Hospital.

The carnage was discovered about 9:30 this morning by the woman's ex-husband and the father of the girls, who had gone to the house after relatives had been unable to reach them by phone, Clark said.

Clark said the woman had been dating McDermott off and on in a sometimes stormy relationship for about eight years.

He called the murder-suicide "a tragic domestic violence incident."

The woman had obtained a restraining order against McDermott two years ago, but it had expired, Clark said.

Neighbors and other sources in town said the woman attended Trinitarian Congregational Church on East Main Street at Pine Street in Norton. The church will be open from 7 to 9 p.m. tonight to receive mourners or other members of the community.

A candlelight vigil is tentatively planned for Tuesday night.

News of the tragedy spread quickly.

One neighbor said she was in Boston when her mother called from Maine to say she'd heard on the news that police were investigating a murder on her street.

By late morning, a crowd had gathered while three news helicopters hovered overhead.

Jessica Milano, 13, came to the neighborhood to check up on her friend, Brittany Cann, the 12-year-old daughter of the murdered woman. She said she had been calling her friend at her home and at her father's house, but got no answer.

The girls were classmates at Norton Middle School, she said.

"I've known Brittany since first grade. Everyone in her family is so friendly. They seem so happy," Milano said, although she added that the girls did not always get along with the boyfriend.