Man, that's cold

Police: 2 confess to killing 6 near Seattle

Prosecutor Outlines Gruesome Details of Washington Family Slaying

Carnation suspects tell officers of victims' frantic, final moments

Neighbors remember couple as paranoid and withdrawn

'Unloved' daughter held after Christmas Eve family massacre

Now only the memories of Carnation victims are left


A 29-year-old woman and her boyfriend (same age) have confessed to killing her parents on Christmas eve supposedly over money issues and feeling like she wasn't appreciated. After hiding her parents' bodies, the couple allegedly waited for her brother and his family to arrive, shooting first her brother, then his wife, and finally their children, ages 5 or 6 (accounts vary) and 3, so there would be no witnesses.

The sister-in-law managed to make a 911 call before the guy supposedly crushed the phone, and deputies were dispatched to what sounded like people arguing at a party. By the time deputies arrived, the woman had supposedly locked the gate to the property, and they did not investigate further. It isn't known whether they could have saved any of the family's lives, but the suspects might have been caught at the scene. Instead, the couple apparently fled from Washington towards Canada, then turned back towards Oregon, finally returning to the parents' property, where they lived in a trailer 200 yards away from the home. At that point it was a homicide crime scene, as a co-worker of the mother came by when she did not show up at work and saw the bodies through a window.

Okay, I understand being angry at your parents. We are all at one time or another, and some people have very good reasons to be. I can even almost make the leap of being so angry you want to kill someone over it. But what about those children? How did killing those children really do anything to make things better for the suspects, really?

The couple may be facing aggravated murder charges, the only crime in Washington State punishable by the death penalty, and at a minimum of life without parole. I'm not a proponent of the death penalty, but I'm thinking if this couple turns out to be proven guilty, then they are two selfish twits who are child-killers, and I'm not so concerned with what happens to them, so long as they never have a free moment again. It sounds like mental illness may play a role in this--others described the couple as paranoid and reclusive. The family itself is described as tight-knit but also intensely private; who knows what went on in this family dynamic? Now six members are dead and another is jailed, and this is a tragedy that's going to affect the family for years to come.