Five kids, dad found dead on West side

GRAHAM, Wash. – A father apparently shot to death five of his children, ages 7 to 16, at their mobile home and then killed himself near a casino miles away, police said Saturday.

Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, called it a domestic violence situation and a murder-suicide.

“We believe they all died of gunshot wounds,” Troyer said.

Police found the father’s body in his still-running car near the Muckleshoot Casino in Auburn, about 30 miles south of Seattle, early Saturday. He had apparently killed himself with a rifle, but left no note in the car, Auburn police Sgt. Scott Near said.

Later in the day, Pierce County deputies checked the mobile home, which is about 20 miles southeast of the casino, and found four of the children dead in their beds and the fifth in the bathroom. Troyer said four of the children were girls and the youngest was a 7-year-old boy.

Neighbors in the Deer Run mobile home park, a well-kept community nestled among towering evergreens, were shocked and weeping at the news.

“How could something like this happen?” asked Mary Ripplinger, whose kids were playmates of the slain children. “Everyone’s asking: Why did he do it? It’s not right.”

The mother of the victims was not at home, Troyer said. Deputies were called to the mobile home after a relative stopped by and saw a child lying motionless on a bed through a window, but couldn’t get anyone to answer the door.

He said investigators believe the husband and wife were not estranged.

Penny Flansburg, who said the wife is her niece, was at a loss to explain the crime.

“They were pleasant together,” Flansburg said. “We can’t even figure out why.”

Flansburg identified the couple as Angela and James Harrison and the children as Maxine, Samantha, Heather, Jamie and James. The father worked as a diesel mechanic, and the mother works at Wal-Mart, Flansburg said.

Authorities did not release the names of the family.

Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor described the crime as a “horrible thing.”

“This appears to be the terrible work of the biological father,” Pastor said. “If that doesn’t break your heart, I don’t know what does.”

A classmate of the eldest daughter said the girl told him Friday night that her parents had gotten into a fight and her mother had left. The father followed the mother and tried to get her to return, according to the 16-year-old classmate.

Dozens of investigators were on the scene Saturday trying to reconstruct the crime and discern a motive.