Police: Family fatally shot in murder-suicide

Five found dead in Delaware home

The Associated Press

PRICES CORNER, Del. — A couple and three young children were found fatally shot at their Delaware home in what police described Tuesday as a murder-suicide.

Delaware State Police identified the couple in a news release as Matthew Edwards, 42, and his wife, Julie Edwards, 41. Police did not release their children’s names but said they included a 4-year-old girl and two boys, 6 and 3, respectively.

Troopers called to the Prices Corner home Monday night found Julie Edwards and the three children dead in the home from apparent gunshot wounds and Matthew Edwards dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. The bodies were turned over to the Delaware Division of Forensic Science, which ruled their deaths murder and suicide by gunshot.

State police said there was no concern for safety in the surrounding area.

6ABC reporter Jeanette Reyes reported that a neighbor said the man who lived in the house where the bodies were found had just lost his job and appeared emotional shortly before the shooting.

Neighbor Wilfredo Rivera, 60, said Tuesday that he saw the father and children at their home Sunday and spoke to Matthew Edwards. The children were playing with scooters, and Mr. Edwards was cooking and going in and out of the home, he said.

“He told me he was having marital problems,” Mr. Rivera said.

The couple had lived there for more than a decade, and the husband had lost his job and took one in Virginia, he said.

“He seemed like an average guy,” he said. “He would come outside with his kids and play.”

At the brown clapboard home Tuesday, there was a for-sale sign on a Ford F150 that had a red, white and blue hardhat in the back. An upstairs-window air conditioner was still running.

Brian Covenko, who lives across the street, told The News Journal that he last talked to Matthew Edwards around Memorial Day.

“I’m just shocked. There was no way to prepare for this,” he said.

“Our kids played together. We’ve been over to barbecues. Every time he was here, he was playing with his kids. I don’t know what happened inside of doors, but I know he was outside with his kids a lot.”