Five members of a Utah family were found dead in their home after a concerned family member checked on the home. One survivor was found with a gunshot wound, police said.
The dead were a 42-year-old man, a 38-year-old woman, an 11-year-old boy and girls ages 9 and 2, West Valley City police spokeswoman Roxeanne Vainuku said.
It is not clear exactly how the five died; their deaths are the subject of a murder investigation. Police believe the violence is over and that it was “isolated in this home,” Vainuku said.
“We do not believe there is a suspect on the loose,” she said.
West Valley City police spokesperson Roxeanne Vainuku discusses the investigation after five people were found dead in a home on Tuesday.
Police arrived after the concerned family member entered the home through the garage earlier Tuesday and found a 17-year-old boy alive and suffering from a gunshot wound, she said.
The teen was hospitalized in unknown condition, Vainuku said.
“We do not know at this time if he is a suspect in this case or if he is a victim in this case,” she said.
Police rushed to the scene and entered the main home, where the victims were found, Vainuku said. After clearing the home to ensure no other victims and possible suspects were inside, officers withdrew pending approval of a search warrant, she said.
Police said on Tuesday evening on X that they had received permission from the judge to search the home and that detectives were inside to collect evidence.
Vainuku said investigators hope the evidence at the home “will tell us what really happened.”
The victims appeared to match what police know about the home’s occupants — a family with two parents and four children ranging in age from 2 to 17, Vainuku said.
Police were initially called to the home Monday after the same relative called to say the woman who lives there had been unusually out of contact for a few days, Vainuku said.
After there was no response to a door knock and after a scan of what could be seen through the windows showed no signs of an emergency, police left until Tuesday, she said.
As officers canvassed the neighborhood for more information, detectives have tried to talk to the hospitalized 17-year-old, so far without success, Vainuku said.
“I know he suffered a pretty serious injury,” she said. “And so I know he’s in a condition where we haven’t really been able to communicate with him.”
The deaths more than double the city’s homicide rate by 2024, Vainuku said, up from four.
West Valley City, population 134,470, is located about 10 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. It was founded in 1980 to serve four rapidly growing communities outside Salt Lake City.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
