Police Say Man Killed Kids Over Wife's Exit

He and 5 Children Dead Near Tacoma

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Associated Press
Monday, April 6, 2009

GRAHAM, Wash., April 5 -- Investigators think a man fatally shot his five children in their home and killed himself after he found out his wife was leaving him for another man, a sheriff's spokesman said.

The bodies of James Harrison's children were found Saturday in the family's mobile home in Graham, southeast of Tacoma, Wash. Harrison had been found earlier in the day, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot, behind the wheel of his car about 18 miles from his home.

Authorities have not released the family's name, but relatives identified it.

The man and his 16-year-old daughter had found his wife with another man at a store on Friday night, Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, told the Tacoma News Tribune.

Troyer said the woman told her husband that she was leaving him for the man she was with. The husband "was devastated," Troyer said.

Investigators believe the father later killed his children and returned to the area near the store looking for his wife. His body was found near the store, Troyer said. No suicide note was left.

On Sunday, the mobile home where the five children, ages 7 to 16, were slain became a makeshift memorial as neighbors left cards and flowers.