Police found a family of three dead during a routine welfare check Wednesday evening in what a police spokesman said appears to be a double murder-suicide.
It appears that the father shot his 14-year-old daughter and wife then took his own life, according to police.
"This terrible incident shocked this quiet north Fort Worth neighborhood and the officers who responded to it," said Lt. Paul Henderson, police spokesman.
Neighbors told police they heard yelling coming from the home early Tuesday morning, followed by popping sounds that they dismissed as fireworks.
Several neighbors said the family was always quiet, which made the yelling at the home out of character. Police were told that's also the reason that neighbors didn't worry about the yelling.
Most in the area described it as a quiet street and said they were shocked by the events. A few said they regularly saw the family out walking a dog and that the daughter, Mailen Pizarro, had several friends and a boyfriend in the neighborhood.
Claudell Cobbs, like many others gathered on the 4600 block of Birchbend Lane, said he'd seen the police cars and barricades accompanied by TV news vans lining the street and walked over.
"It's kind of a shock to us because it's a pretty quiet neighborhood," said Claudell Cobbs, a 17-year-old who lives a couple of blocks away.
Police spokesman Lt. Paul Henderson said the officer who found the family in the home was also taken back.
"After he discovered the little girl's lifeless body he later took a deep breath, held back his tears, and called his own kids to tell them he loved them," Henderson said.
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--Andrew Chavez
Mailen wuss one of my best friends! I love her to death & allways will. She was so quiet! I never thouqht anythinq like this would happen. It always seemed like she would have an ideal family.
Posted by: Kay. | August 08, 2008 at 07:08 PM