The State - News from June 24, 1986

Four members of the same family were found dead in a fashionable northwest Fresno home in what appeared to be a multiple murder-suicide, police said. A 12-year-old girl was found shot to death in a sleeping bag in the backyard, and the bodies of a 17-year-old girl and a woman were found in separate bedrooms, Police Sgt. Mike Guthrie said. They also had been shot. And a man was found in the garage, dead of apparent asphyxiation from an auto exhaust. “The indications are there was no struggle in the house,” Guthrie said. “The three females who were shot apparently were sleeping peacefully. The man was in the garage with the engine running.” The sergeant added with “that type of scenario, it is easy to theorize, at least, that it was a murder-suicide.” The four were believed to be a husband, wife and their daughters. Their names were not released because the coroner’s office was having difficulty locating relatives.