Murder-suicide claims five lives

DEER LODGE (AP) — A Montana man shot and killed his wife and three young children and laid the kids' bodies out on a bed before setting a fire in the family's remote cabin and killing himself, officials in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County said Monday.

The shootings happened Sunday morning at the family's home on a forested mountain ridge in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest about 15 miles southeast of the town of Deer Lodge, Police Chief Tim Barkell said.

Barkell was withholding the names of the victims and the shooter until relatives could be notified.

The man shot his wife and 1-year-old child with a handgun inside the log cabin, then went outside and shot two other children, ages 4 and 6, Detective Steve Barclay said. The man carried the children's bodies inside and laid all three together on the bed, Barclay said.

His wife's body was found in the kitchen area, Barclay said.

The man apparently set fire to a chair after arranging the bodies and then shot himself. The fire was contained within the cabin, Barkell said.

Coroner Jerry Thomas said the man was 59, and his wife was 37.

The shooter called a friend in Deer Lodge at about 10 a.m. Sunday and "said he killed his wife and kids and now he was going to set the place on fire," Assistant Police Chief Bill Sather said.

The friend called 911.

Barclay said authorities arrived at the cabin to find smoke pouring from the eaves. After waiting an hour for firefighters to travel the pitted dirt road to the cabin and put out the blaze, Barclay was the first to enter and find the bodies.

He said officers had not determined a motive for the shootings and officials hadn't had a chance to fully interview the friend who made the 911 call.

The family had lived in the cabin full time for a couple of years, but had moved to Montana from out of state. Barclay was not sure where they were originally from.

Barkell said he knew nothing about the family and the shootings were the "first dealings we've ever had with them."

The cabin sits in the middle of a sprawling property with semitrailers, tents and tools scattered across several acres. The day after the shooting, fire officials circled the cabin with police tape, using a clothesline from which jeans and dungarees flapped in the breeze.

Gawkers were scarce, with the nearest neighbors a couple of miles away.

Thomas, the coroner, took the bodies to the state crime lab in Missoula on Sunday afternoon.