Police: Family dead in Ohio, likely murder-suicide

[January 29, 2009]  WHITEHALL, Ohio (AP) -- Police say a couple and their two children found dead in a suburban Columbus home are likely the victims of a murder-suicide.

Whitehall police say the victims were a husband and wife, their 8-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son. Investigators would not say how they died. The children were home from school Wednesday for a snow day.

Sgt. Daniel Kelso says the deaths have "the markings of a murder-suicide."

A neighbor says the father recently lost his job, and investigators say that may have been a factor in the deaths.

They come a day after police in Wilmington, Calif., found the bodies of a couple and their five children. The father was in debt and had recently been fired; police say he killed his family and himself.

[Associated Press]

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