Los Angeles, CA - Bystanders watched in horror Thursday night as a woman placed a toddler in an SUV engulfed in flames before she climbed in and both burned to death outside a neighborhood park in Los Angeles.

Homicide detectives and arson investigators today are trying to figure out how the fire started and why the woman killed herself and the child. The incident occurred at 9:45 p.m. in the 300 block of West 124th Street near Athens Park, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Firefighters responding to a report of a car fire doused the flames and then found the two bodies inside. Witnesses told investigators that a woman and a child between 3 and 4 years old were standing near the SUV as it burned, and the woman kept getting in and out of the flaming vehicle, City News Service reported Friday morning.

"The woman then placed the child into the SUV and got in herself, ignoring the pleas of bystanders aghast at the unfolding situation," City News reported. "Both were overcome by the flames and pronounced dead at the scene, according to the LASD." The coroner's office has yet to to identify the woman and child.