Authorities believe a man fatally shot his wife and four children, set their rural South Dakota house on fire, then turned the shotgun on himself, the state's attorney general's office said Tuesday.
Preliminary autopsy results show all six members of the Westerhuis family died of shotgun wounds. The bodies of Scott and Nicole Westerhuis and their children Kailey, Jaeci, Connor and Michael were found in the burned ruins of their home in Platte on Thursday.
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said investigators believe Scott Westerhuis fired all the deadly shots.
"It's hard for us to determine exactly if he started the fire, but that's the only thing that makes sense," Jackley's spokeswoman told The Associated Press.
TVNL Comment: So often, and so tragically, it's NOT the criminals who kill with guns, it's ordinary people in extraordinary rages who have access to guns.
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