Oregon police: 5 dead in apparent murder-suicide

[May 23, 2012]  SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Police were investigating the deaths of three Oregon children and their parents as an apparent murder-suicide Wednesday after authorities found the bodies of the children and their mother at a burned home and then that of their father in a car hours later.

Authorities have not identified the victims, and police say they don't have other details about the parents' relationship.

The woman and children were discovered early Tuesday when Salem firefighters responded to a house fire in a working-class neighborhood of old homes, small apartment complexes and mature trees.

A neighbor reported awaking about 5:30 a.m. to the fire. Dan Grove told the Salem Statesman Journal that he "saw dark, black smoke pouring out of the house. I heard people screaming and yelling. It was for real."

About five hours later, the father was found dead in a vehicle about 75 miles south of Salem, in Cottage Grove.

Salem, the state capital, is about 50 miles south of Portland along Interstate 5.

Firefighters who came to the house found evidence of violence, said Salem police Lt. Dave Okada.

An hour before that, Okada said, a driver making deliveries found the body of a sixth person on the street a quarter-mile north of the house.

But Okada wouldn't say whether that death was related to those in the house.

"At this point we're treating that as an entirely separate investigation," Okada said.

He said authorities were arranging for autopsies.

Police blocked off much of the neighborhood.

Clara King, who lives in an apartment about 50 yards from the home that burned, said she was awake in the middle of the night and heard a woman screaming, "like she was being hurt."

"I thought it was the neighbor lady having a party or something," King said. "I went out there to say something, but nobody was there."

Some residents say it is a rough neighborhood. King said it's not unusual to hear screams or fights in the middle of the night.

People in the neighborhood are shaken by the deaths.

"We're worried because we don't know what happened inside," said Magdiel Perez, who lives two doors down from the home that burned.

On the lime-green home where the children and their mother died, black soot coated the edges of window frames. The home has a green lawn, with pink and white flowers growing by the front door.

The family was quiet and kept to themselves, said Jose Quiroz, who lives across the street. The father would frequently play with the children in the yard, and last summer, the kids splashed in a pool on the lawn, Quiroz said.

There were no outward signs of conflict between the couple, he said.

"It's unbelievable that someone could hurt their own kids," Quiroz.

[Associated Press; By JONATHAN J. COOPER]

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