Posted on 03/26/2002 1:02:59 PM PST by FresnoDA
Man kills four kids and himself in Merced murder-suicide
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Merced County Sheriff's Sgt. Tom Cavallero said Christine McFadden was returning from her morning walk shortly after 7 a.m. when she found her 17-year-old daughter lying dead in the hallway near the door of her bedroom.
McFadden, a veterinarian in Merced, then called police from a neighbor's house before returning with deputies to the gray ranch-style home to find her three other children and her estranged husband lying in separate bedrooms, Cavallero said.
"It looks like they had been sleeping," Cavallero said of the children.
The body of former Santa Clara County sheriff's deputy John Hogan was found in the bed of the master bedroom, holding the dead 5-year-old girl, Michelle Hogan, in his arms.
Melanie Willis, 17, and Stanley Willis, 15, were students at Golden Valley High School. Stuart Willis, 14, was an eighth grader at Our Lady of Mercy School.
Commander Bart Pazin of the Merced County Sheriff's Department said Hogan was a retired deputy from Santa Clara County.
Cavallero said McFadden left the house with a neighbor at 6 a.m. for their morning run and that she told deputies her estranged husband was not in the house when she left.
"I don't think anybody can pre-plan for this type of action," Pazin said. "Nobody could ever foresee something like this."
The shooting took place in the Robinson Estates, a small community on the east side of Merced near Bear Creek, where lawns are well manicured on half-acre lots.
"It is a very affluent residential area with custom homes," Cavallero said. "It is very nice, with single-family homes on big lots. It is very suburban."
This seems to be happening about once a week.
Why the hell can't somebody foresee something like this?
When a husband and wife are separating, anybody who suspects their spouse might be capable of violence needs to protect themselves and the kids at a safe location, and the state MUST NOT require that spouse to make their location known... (There must be other things that people can come up with, but this would be a start...)
Mark W.
About the best preventative measure is to be very careful who you get involved with and marry. And even then, that isn't foolproof.
Affects of social and moral breakdown, but hey, "it's constitutional."
Wonder why he spared his wife?
sw
This just occurred to me as I was putting my my post...
These stories seem to be popping up here on FR a lot lately. This topic is the theme of the
new Jennifer Lopez movie -- ENOUGH -- Self Defense Isn't Murder
Is some Freeper a publicity flak for Sony, and do these stories get put up to get the room humming harder prior to the new release?
Mark W.
sw
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Four Merced children are dead after what police believe was a murder suicide. Just after 7 a.m. Tuesday, a man went to the home of his ex-wife at Lecco and Piedmont Streets in Northeast Merced, where he allegedly shot his own child, three other children in the home and himself. Merced County Sheriff's Deputies say the man's ex-wife, Christine McFadden, came back from a morning walk to find her ex-husband and her five-year-old daughter lying dead on the floor. McFadden went to a neighbor's house to call police, then returned home to find her three other children dead in other bedrooms. Authorities say the dead include the five-year-old girl, a 17-year-old girl, and 14- and 15-year-old boys. Those three teenagers were not children of the man who apparently committed the murders. Police say the man had been living in Kern County. How, why and when he arrived in Merced are unanswered questions at this time.