Man Kills 3 Children, Self at Ex-Wife’s House

A recently divorced man broke into his ex-wife’s house Friday and shot to death three children, two of them his own, before turning the gun on himself, police said.

The body of John Ritzert, 30, a bricklayer in nearby Evansville, Ind., was found in the blood-soaked home along with the children, two boys, 12 and 6, and a girl, 3. Ritzert had fathered the two younger children.

Police were called to the house by Ritzert’s ex-wife, Theresa, 32, who had fled to a neighbor’s house after Ritzert broke in through a window, cut the telephone lines, and brandished a shotgun. She told neighbors that she and Ritzert had argued and she feared he would shoot the children.