A horrible story has emerged from a small Oregon town and it's left four children orphaned and police hunting for a motive in a shocking crime.
To make matters even more tragic, the kids had been living with the bodies of their deceased mom and dad since New Year's Eve - and didn't even know it.
For three days, the youngsters - including a nine-month old daughter - had been fending for themselves in the city of
Madras, about 160 kilometres from Portland, wondering what happened to their parents.
The couple, 26-year-old Hannah Crowe and 21-year-old Julian Wallulatum, was secreted behind a locked bedroom door and the oldest child - a girl just eight years of age - knocked repeatedly, pleading with her mom and dad to come out.
But the only response was the wailing of the baby, who was also behind that closed barrier.
On Saturday, after being alone without any supervision for three long days, the children finally ran to a neighbour's apartment, pleading for help.
Andrew Smith opened his door and was startled to find the kids there, since he'd seen them playing outside on Thursday and Friday and assumed nothing was wrong.
His opinion changed when he got to their front door, heard the baby crying and detected a foul odour emanating from inside.
"The oldest one said 'I can't wake my mom up. I can't wake my mom and dad up, 'cause I think they're still passed out, but I can see blood on my mom's leg, under the door,'" Smith told an Oregon TV station.
He kicked down the bedroom door and saw a sight he insists will forever haunt him. The bloodstained bodies of the couple lay in their bed, wearing the same clothes they'd been dressed in on New Year's Eve. Both were dead.
The nine-month old lay beside them, crying and soaked in blood and her own feces. An autopsy appears to show Wallulatum shot Crowe before turning the gun on himself.
But why they didn't send their children out of the apartment or leave the baby in another room is a mystery that died with the couple.
Smith claims he almost passed out at the terrible scene. "My knees, they wobbled," he recalls. "It just took it out of me. I almost fainted."
Neighbours are both astounded and angry at the presumed killer for his callous actions that took one life and endangered so many others.
"How could they leave the babies?" demands Ashley Barker. "If something was going on, an argument, why didn't they send them to the neighbours?"
No one recalls hearing the shots.
The baby has now been placed in protective custody while the other three kids have been left with relatives.