Deer Park mom, 3 children found shot to death in home
Police not seeking a suspect; friends of woman say she dealt with many issues
In social media posts, the three Auzenne children are pictured smiling in a sunny patch of bluebonnets. Their mother’s profile photos are framed by banners promoting autism support and ending gun violence.
Friends said Ashley Auzenne’s life was complicated by a turbulent marriage, a pending divorce and a son who had autism and a serious heart condition.
Police found the bodies of 39-year-old Ashley and her children, Parrish, 11, Eleanor, 9, and Lincoln, 7, dead of gunshot wounds in different rooms of the family’s Deer Park home in the 1400 block of New Orleans Street during a welfare check Tuesday morning.
“The Deer Park Police Department is not ready to say exactly how this terrible crime occurred, but it does have enough information to say other citizens in our city have nothing to fear in their own homes,” the department said in a statement.
Officials recovered a handgun from the home. There is no suspect in custody, nor are police searching for any suspects. Officials would not confirm that the case involved a suspected murder-suicide, but they do not suspect it was a home invasion. The children’s father, Murvin Raymond Auzenne Jr., does not live at the home but has spoken with investigators, said Lt. Chris Brown with Deer Park Police.
A school principal notified parents Tuesday afternoon that one of the victims was a Bonnette Junior High student and the two younger children attended Deer Park Elementary.
A family member requested a welfare check before 9 a.m. Tuesday, Brown said, saying it had been a few days since relatives had heard from Ashley. Her friend, Lauren Novosad Wilson, said she received a message from Ashley on Saturday.
Several shocked friends said via Facebook messages that they couldn’t imagine Ashley would harm her children.
Carrie Junot, who befriended Ashley several years ago in Massachusetts, recalled her as “the sweetest person” and a great parent who was dedicated to addressing her eldest son’s health condition and supporting the younger ones in their interests.
“She was a mom, completely about making sure her kids were happy and taken care of,” she said. “I know she was dealing with a bunch of stuff personally and medically.”
“She was the nicest person you could have met, opened her doors to people and advocated for her son,” Junot said.
Another friend called her “a wonderful mother” and said her children were “beyond extraordinary.”
Shirley Davis said her heart was heavy. She had just contributed to Eleanor, or Ella, during a Girl Scout fall sale. Ashley’s social media showed images of Eleanor going to a gifted-and-talented girls’ science program after she had been chosen for student council.
Mary Dybka kept in touch with Ashley after they connected a dozen years ago as military wives and mothers of children with autism. She doubted that the mother would hurt her children, saying the two often joked that Ashley was “more Yankee then Texan with her Democratic views and strict gun control beliefs.”
“She adored her family and was a courageous advocate for her special-needs son who was born without a left ventricle of his heart and had autism,” she said.
Ashley confided in her over the summer that she was moving forward with a divorce.
“As a former military spouse and survivor of domestic violence and abuse, it sickens me to have to consider that the unthinkable happened to my friend and her beautiful children,” Dybka said.
Wilson, who had received a message from Ashley on Saturday,
found the news especially chilling. Ashley told her things had been rough with her husband.
“I know he had been extremely controlling and extremely verbally abusive,” Wilson said.
A note to middle school families from John Wegman, the principal at Bonnette Junior High, said grief counseling would be made available for students throughout the week.
“Reports of the children’s deaths have already reached the local news media, which means that rumors will likely spread during the day today,” it said. “It’s possible that other students might hear about this tragic news, and friends of the three students could have their own needs.”
New Orleans Street remained blocked off by police cruisers and crime scene tape as investigators moved in and out of the home. Investigators, at one point, were seen carrying an uninjured gray cat from the home in a portable crate.
Multiple neighbors on New Orleans Street said they didn’t know the parents, but they often saw the kids playing in the area.
Eric Flores said the kids played soccer and football with his nephews in his front yard.
“They were just kids, you know, normal kids,” he said. “It’s nerve-racking. It’s not every day you get something like this, especially in Deer Park.”