Boy, 11, Finds Mother, Sister, Brother Hanged

An 11-year old Yucaipa boy returned from school Friday afternoon to find his mother, 4-year-old sister and 2-year-old brother all hanged in the garage beside the family home.

While no motive for the crime was officially established, San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies said it appeared the woman, Katerina Williams, had slain her daughter, Nadja, and son, Kevin, before taking her own life.

A sheriff’s spokeswoman said a suicide note was found that “made some reference to being despondent.” No other details were immediately provided.

Investigators said that when the 11-year-old boy, Robert Williams Jr., returned with an adult friend to the single-story home in a 30-year-old residential neighborhood at about 2:40 p.m., he found no one in the house.

The boy then went to the garage, deputies said, where he found his mother, sister and brother hanging side-by-side from a rafter.

The boy ran to a home of a neighbor, who called sheriff’s deputies. Among the first to arrive on the scene was a County Fire Department paramedic team.

Entering the garage to see if there was any chance of reviving the victims, the team spotted one child hanging from the rafters, according to county Fire Capt. Jerry Hendershot.

“They thought that was the only one,” Hendershot said. “Then they turned to go out and saw the other two--the mother and the other child.

“It was real obvious . . . that they been there for some time,” Hendershot said. He said there were no signs of life.

Dave Brown was a member of a civilian ambulance team summoned to the scene in the vain hope that some of the lives could be saved.

“I heard neighbors there saying they just couldn’t understand it,” Brown said later. “They were sure that she would not have done anything like that.”

The husband and father of the victims, insurance broker Robert Williams Sr., was away at work when the discovery was made, according to officials. After being contacted by deputies, he returned to the home in the 12400 block of 1st Street Friday evening.

County paramedics who responded to the call were so shocked by the scene they had to be relieved from duty, according to Hendershot, commander of a station in Yucaipa.

After given “stress incident” counseling by the department, the shaken paramedics, both veterans, were sent home early.

In a community where most calls are for traffic accidents and people having difficulty breathing, Hendershot said, “it’s not something we see every day--a hanging, let alone a family like that.”

Yucaipa is a largely residential community of 35,000 about 20 miles southeast of San Bernardino in the foothills below 11,500-foot Mt. San Gorgonio. The rapidly growing town was incorporated about two years ago, according to its mayor, William Semans.

“This is a calm, quiet town,” said Barbara Ular, a longtime resident who lives about a mile from the crime scene. “I was shocked when I heard what had happened. Things like that just don’t happen here.

“This has always been the kind of place you can go away and leave the door of your house unlocked,” Ular added. “I’m going to lock it from now on.”

Times staff writer Nieson Himmel contributed to this story.