Farm Official Kills 3, Then Self

The head of the county Farmers Home Administration office shot his wife and two children to death at the family’s home today and then killed himself in his Elk Point office, a county official said.

Bruce Litchfield, 38, Union County supervisor for the agency, was taken to the Marian Health Center in nearby Sioux City, Iowa, where he died at 10:27 a.m., a hospital spokeswoman said. State’s Atty. John Slattery said the motive for Litchfield’s actions was not immediately known and that he could not link them to the nation’s farm problems, which have sparked violence in some agricultural communities.