Authorities investigating death of Cecil County family of 5 as murder-suicide

BALTIMORE -- The Cecil County sheriff's office confirms that the death of a family of five on Friday, was a murder-suicide.

Over the weekend, officials identified the deceased as 39-year-old  Marcus Edward Milligan, 37-year-old Tara Devina Ricker Milligan and their children 14-year-old Teresa Milligan, 11-year-old Nora Milligan and 8-year-old Finn Milligan.

The sheriff's office said Marcus Milligan shot his wife and three kids Friday morning, but before he turned the gun on himself, he made a "very specific" call to 911.

"It is our belief that Marcus did make the telephone call. During the phone call he told us that he'd killed four other people at the residence and then when the call ended he was going to kill himself," Lt. Michael Holmes with the Cecil County Sheriff's office said.

Deputies say Finn Milligan's body was in the garage. One of his sisters was downstairs while another one of the girls was in a bedroom upstairs. Both parents—Marcus and Tara Mulligan—were found upstairs in a bedroom.

The Cecil County Sheriff's office said when deputies arrived at the home on Hebron Court, the father was found with a gun next to him. At that point, everyone in the family was already dead from gunshot wounds.

Officials say all of the weapons were legally registered to Marcus Milligan.

Posts on social media indicate that three years ago, the family lost a younger son to cancer and they may have still been grappling with that grief. Still, police are investigating the motive behind the shooting.

"We're still trying to determine what the motive actually was," Holmes said. "The investigators still have to do investigating and there's different things they've discovered, but we're not at the point where we can say one specific thing led to this incident."

Neighbors were familiar with this family. Some saw the three kids—Teresa, Nora, and Finn—playing with their dog and another neighbor said he had an encounter with the dad just days ago.

"The dad was over Monday night to print a book report for one of his daughters because their printer was broken," one neighbor told WJZ. "It was just as normal as you can be."

Officials say investigators will be looking through phone, email and even financial records as they themselves try to deal with what they saw Friday morning.

"It affects everyone," Maj. George Stanko with the Cecil County Sheriff's office said. "And these guys that are first responders, once you see something like that in your life, it never goes away."

Officials say the animals which were rescued from the home are now in the care of the sheriff's office, but they are hoping a relative or member of the community will take the animals in.