Berks County Parents, Children Found Dead in Possible Murder-Suicide
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Five members of a Berks County family and their dog were found dead in their home on Saturday afternoon in what seems to be a murder-suicide, police told reporters.
The victims, including husband and wife Mark Short and Megan Short, 40 and 33, respectively, and their children, Willow, Mark Jr. and Lianna, 2, 5 and 8, died of gunshot wounds, according to the Reading Eagle.
Officials said police discovered a handgun as well as a handwritten “murder-suicide” note in the home, located near Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania. It’s still unclear who used the gun.
Police said an investigation revealed domestic issues between Mark and Megan, the newspaper reports.
According to the Reading Eagle, Megan had recently posted to Facebook about plans to leave her husband. When the family’s neighbor, Angie Burke, posted a Washington Post article to Facebook “He didn’t hit me. It was still abuse,” Megan commented, “This is why I am leaving my marriage Angie. 16 years.” Burke said Megan told her she had planned to move to Yardley.
Megan had previously written about struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder after Willow, her youngest daughter, needed a heart transplant at just one week old.
In a Philly at Heart blog post, Megan said certain smells, sounds and sights set off “anxiety and nightmares” and that she experienced “survivor’s guilt” when speaking with families who had lost young children to health issues. The family was profiled by the New York Times in 2015.
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