I just saw this in the news this morning. A father killed his family and them himself. This happened in McMinnvile, Oregon – just outside of Portland, Oregon. Depressing!
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* http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=42841
Family of six found dead; police believe father killed family, then self
MCMINNVILLE - A family of six was found shot to death in their home in an apparent murder-suicide, investigators said Friday.
Robert Bryant is believed to have shot his wife and four children before killing himself, said Yamhill County District Attorney Bradley C. Berry.
"Evidence ... indicates that Mr. Robert Bryant killed his wife and children and then took his own life," Berry said.
Dead are the 37-year-old father, his 37-year-old wife, Janet Ellen Bryant, as well as 15-year-old Clayton, 12-year-old Ethan, 10-year-old Ashley and 9-year-old Alissa Bryant.
In a phone interview, Jeanna Wright told katu.com that her daughter Jaden was friends with Ashley Bryant at Memorial Elementary School. Mrs. Wright said her daughter had not seen Ashley in Mrs. Mecker's class for two weeks and was concerned.
Ashley's younger sister Alissa was a second grade student at Memorial Elementary.
Ethan was a sixth grader at Patton Middle School, and Clayton, the oldest, attended McMinnville High School.
Robert Bryant was a self-employed landscaping contractor. He and his family moved to the McMinnville area last summer.
A study of California bankruptcy records indicates that the family moved to McMinnville from Shingle Springs California, where the father had a landscaping business called Bryant's Landscape Maintenance.
A former neighbor of the family who knew the Bryants when they lived in California told KATU News that the Bryants and their relatives were Jehovah's witnesses.
According to the former neighbor, Robert Bryant got into an argument with a church leader over the Bible while he and his family were still living in California.
The family was reportedly shunned by both other Jehovah's witnesses as well as their own relatives following the incident.
The Bryants came to Oregon to make a fresh start, the neighbor told KATU.
Two Yamhill County sheriff's deputies were in the vicinity of the Bryants' McMinville home Thursday night when neighbors approached them to express concern about the family.
Deputies spotted what appeared to be a body inside the home, which is 3½ miles southwest of McMinnville,a ccording to the district attorney's office.
They found five more bodies inside the home.
Investigators said they did not yet know the motive behind the shootings.
Not surprisingly, this apparent murder-suicide has saddened many who knew the Bryant children.
"Ethan Bryant was a very nice young man, he had many friends. We are very saddened by this tragedy," Assistant Principal of Patton Middle School, Mark Hyder told KATU News.
"Ethan was new to our district this year...he was a very popular sixth-grader," said Hyder."
Counselors are at the school today working with students and staff to come to terms with today's tragedy.
"We're just trying to get through this day supporting students and their families," Hyder said.
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