Child Finds Parents, Grandfather Dead In Double Murder, Suicide
AMADOR COUNTY (CBS13) — A 4-year-old girl is the witness to an unspeakable discovery.
Amador County Sheriff's deputies say she found the bodies of her own parents and grandfather after a double-murder-suicide inside her own Pine Grove home.
"It's a tragic thing, no doubt," neighbor Tommy McCaffrey said.
McCaffrey lives next door to where the tragedy played out overnight.
Deputies say a man shot and killed his girlfriend, his father and then himself. The gunshots waking up his 4-year-old daughter, who found the bodies.
Deputies say the little girl then used her grandfather's cell phone to call her grandmother.
"What a terrible thing for that little kid to feel, gosh, speechless," McCaffrey said.
A picture of the little girl with her mother is posted on a Gofundme website page set up by a family member to pay for funeral expenses and college funds.
The Amador sheriff's department identified the mother as 27-year old Marie Leonetti.
Deputies say the grandfather was 60-year-old Richard Thayer and the suspect was 26-year-old Jacob Thayer.
The families involved are longtime members of the Pine Grove community, with a population of just over 2,000 people.
"We have a low crime rate up here and so things don't happen too often," neighbor Beth McCaffrey said. "Maybe we get more shocked then maybe the bigger cities."
Deputies recovered a .40-caliber Glock handgun inside the home.
A motive has not been announced, leaving a big question in this small community and a little girl with a lifetime to wonder.
"She wants her Mom and Dad, you bet," Tommy McCaffrey said.
The Amador County Sheriff's Department says there are no outstanding suspects. Still, an in-depth investigation is underway.