NATIONAL BRIEFING
A home-improvement worker and school janitor who apparently was struggling to survive the recession killed his sleeping wife and two children before turning the 12-gauge shotgun on himself, state police said.
Charles L. Dalton, 38, left no suicide note.
Police announced the findings one day after the bodies of Dalton, his wife, Jennifer, 37, and their children, Charles Jr., 14, and Emmaline, 7, were found in their home in Mount Airy, a town of 8,800 about 30 miles west of Baltimore.
Dalton also fatally shot the family’s beagle in a crate inside the home’s front door, a police spokesman said.
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