Family of Four in Murder-Suicide
An apparently depressed man killed his wife and two children with a shotgun and then took his own life at the family’s suburban home, police said Friday.
New Castle County police spokesman Sgt. Ronald Albence said the body of Philip Beardsley and the pajama-clad bodies of his wife, Tamlyn, and their children, Talbot and Pierson, were discovered by police Thursday night.
“We’re calling it a murder-suicide. However, in Delaware we have to allow the medical examiner to make the final determination. But we’re pretty sure he committed the murders and then turned the shotgun on himself,” Albence said.
The bodies were taken to the medical examiner’s office for autopsies to determine the cause and approximate time of the deaths.
Albence said police went to the Beardsley home north of Wilmington late Thursday after Beardsley’s father called police to say he could not reach his son by telephone.
Albence said there was little information about Beardsley or what led to the killings.
“The only thing we have is depression on his part,” he said.
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