Cops: Girl, 4, finds family dead; calls for help with slain grandfather's cell
PINE GROVE, Calif. -- Deputies say a four-year-old girl who awoke to gunshots found her mother, father and grandfather shot dead in her California home, reports CBS Sacramento.
Amador County Sheriff's deputies identified the suspect as 26-year-old Jacob Thayer in the apparent murder-suicide in Pine Grove early Thursday. They say Thayer apparently killed his father, 60-year-old Richard Thayer, and his girlfriend, 27-year old Marie Leonetti -- the child's mother-- and then turned the gun on herself.
Deputies say the girl used her slain grandfather's cellphone to call her grandmother, who had left the home to care for a relative, reports the Sacramento Bee. The grandmother called 911. When authorities arrived, they reportedly found the grandmother and the girl outside the home and the three bodies inside.
Deputies recovered a .40-caliber Glock handgun inside the home, according to CBS Sacramento.
A motive remains unclear.