Police: Parents planned murders, suicide
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A couple who recently moved from Switzerland to Utah planned a murder-suicide that left their family of four dead, buying sleeping pills and researching shootings, according to a police report on the investigation into the deaths that was released this week.
Jessica Griffith, 43, believed she had a terminal disease and texted her husband last year about picking “good time to leave” so they would be together and “love for eternity,” said the report made public on Wednesday. The family was found dead in November 2017, just a few months after they moved to Mapleton, Utah, from Switzerland.
An autopsy, however, found Jessica Griffith was healthy before she died, Mapleton police chief John Jackson said Thursday.
It’s not clear why she spoke extensively with her husband about her pain and sent him links to ovarian cancer websites, he said.
“We wish we knew the answer to that,” Jackson said.
Police suspect the couple put sleeping pills in hot chocolate the mother and children drank after the family ate fondue and played the card game Uno.
Timothy Griffith used a pistol to shoot his sedated wife, her 16-year-old daughter and the couple’s 5-year-old son Alexendre Griffith along with the family German shepherd before killing himself.
The couple had met and married in Switzerland. The family moved to Mapleton, about 55 miles south of Salt Lake City, for Timothy Griffith’s job with Nestle.
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