Shocking news is being reported from Duluth, Minnesota, as detectives report that the bodies of “five family members and a dog” were discovered in the afternoon. Details are still being developed but it seems the killer should have been on someone’s radar and wasn’t.
Bodies discovered by police
As noted by authorities with the Duluth Police Department on Wednesday, April 20, “the bodies were found in a home on the 700 block of East 12th Street in the city’s East Hillside neighborhood.”
They were looking for one of the family members when they rang the doorbell, hoping to prevent a tragedy. They found one instead.
The official story is that local police were “searching for someone in regards to a welfare check in nearby Hermantown early Wednesday morning.” Officers aren’t saying what led them to the Duluth home.
They do explain that when they got there, around 12:30 p.m., they had good reason to believe “the person they were looking for had access to weapons.” After entering the home “wearing tactical gear,” they quickly learned they were too late. They “found the bodies of five people, all believed to be related.” Their dog was dead, too.
Authorities aren’t releasing any of the names, yet, because they’re still working diligently to notify the relatives.
On Wednesday evening, Duluth Police Chief Mike Tusken talked to news outlets before they went out to interview grieving neighbors. Discovering the bodies of an entire family is “an unimaginable tragedy that struck our community,” Tusken declares.
Doesn’t make sense
Neighbors of the family filled in some gaps which leave more questions than answers. Two nearby homeowners say at least four of the bodies found were all members of the same family. Reportedly a “mom, dad and two young daughters.” Plus, their dog.
The fifth body was the subject of the “welfare check.” The neighbors weren’t close but they knew the family.
“I connected with them as far as snowblowing, shoveling and their book club. I just can’t believe it. It doesn’t make any sense to me,” Joe Miller relates.
Another nearby resident speculates that the gunman was “a relative of the family, and they may have been in the midst of a mental health crisis.” The bodies suggest that he was.
Police aren’t giving any details of how the people died. All they have to say is that “there is no threat to the public.” There won’t be any more bodies to discover either.
Meanwhile, the whole city is in shock, “sharing a sorrow for the loss of our people.” Duluth Mayor Emily Larson notes, her “heart, like yours, absolutely hurts for the pain of loved ones and the fear people likely experienced on their final day here with us.“