A father, mother, and six kids between ages 11 months to 4 years, were found dead in a car in what is believed to be a murder-suicide in Texas.
The family of six was found dead in an SUV parked in a garage at a home in Stone Oak on Thursday, June 4, San Antonio police said. Their cats were also found dead inside a basket in the car.
Officers were first dispatched to the home in the 100 block of Red Willow after a friend of one of the residents notified police that he hadn’t heard from him in a while.
When officers arrived for a welfare check on Thursday morning, they entered the home and smelled “heavy, noxious fumes” coming from inside the residence. The officers immediately backed out of the house, according to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus.
On the front door of the house, the officers found a note containing military jargon and a cryptic message. The father, who was found dead with his entire family, is in the military.
Officers were able to interpret the message in the note. It claimed that there were “bodies or people inside of the home, animals were in the freezer, and do not enter,” McManus said at the news conference.
Since officers couldn’t get into the house, they used drones and a robot inside the residence and found what they initially believed to be possible explosives. McManus said the home could be “booby-trapped.”
However, police were eventually able to enter the garage of the home on Thursday evening and discovered the family of six dead in the car, McManus said.
The husband and wife were both in their 30s and their four children, ranging from 11 months old to 4 years old, were all found dead in the vehicle, police said. The victims have not been identified.
Two cats were also found inside of a basket in the vehicle’s front seat, according to McManus.
McManus said evidence suggests that the six deaths were not an accident and appear to be a suicide. He also said no explosives were found at the scene like previously suspected.
The fumes that initially caused officers to exit the home were later identified as carbon monoxide.
Photos from the scene appear to show what was likely a chaotic scene at the home.
Pictures obtained by reporter Emily Olson showed broken windows in the garage door, as well as throughout the house. Car seats were sitting on the front lawn. The photos may show the extent to which officers tried to get into the home.
