LOS ANGELES - A family of four that had just moved from Switzerland to Utah has been found dead, in what police are investigating as a murder-suicide, authorities in the western US state said.
Mapleton Police Chief John Jackson said Friday that the family moved from Switzerland to that small town when American Timothy Griffith, 45, found a job.
He was found dead Thursday along with his 42-year-old wife Jessica Griffith, his 16-year-old stepdaughter Samantha Badel and 5-year-old son Alexandre Griffith, police said. Neighbors were stunned.
“I just can’t imagine what happened, when I talked to him there was no depression there was no anything. It’s just amazing just comprehend what happened,” neighbor Doug Allin told KUTV. “It seems like everyone was getting along really good.” “As officers looked around the home they observed things that caused them concern,” the chief told the Deseret News.
“One of the things that caught their attention was neighbors had said they have a dog that when somebody knocks on the door is very aggressive and barks. They didn’t get any of that.”
Jackson said the position of the bodies inside the home led investigators to believe it was a murder suicide, but he declined to offer more information about the scene.
He did not offer details about what may have led to the killings or how they unfolded. Autopsies will be performed on the bodies to learn more about exactly what happened, he said.
The chief said the family had moved to the town a few months earlier, and police had not had any prior interactions with them.
The teenage girl had recently enrolled as a sophomore at Maple Mountain High School, and counselors had been made available to students and faculty, Nebo School District spokeswoman Lana Hiskey told the Salt Lake Tribune.
Mapleton, nestled against the mountains about 10 miles (16.09 kilometers) south of Provo, has a population of about 9,500.