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Distraught Wilmington dad Ervin Lupoe likely shot wife Ana and kids day before killing self
Updated Wednesday, January 28th 2009, 12:12 PM
The Lupoe family in happier times.
LOS ANGELES - Distraught dad Ervin Lupoe likely spent the night with the lifeless bodies of his wife and five children after he turned their home into a slaughterhouse, authorities now believe.
The Los Angeles County Coroner says Lupoe may have started the executions as early as 5 p.m. Monday night, roving from room to room with his revolver and a blinding sense of desperation.
He apparently capped his fatal meltdown by penning a rambling suicide note that he faxed to KABC-TV Tuesday morning.
In the two-page note, the 40-year-old X-ray technician claimed his wife Ana agreed to the grisly crime after the couple both lost their jobs at Kaiser Permanente Hospital. Lupoe claimed a supervisor told him, "You should have blown your brains out."
He said he and Ana were being investigated for fraud related to "misrepresentation of our employment" with a childcare provider and that appeals to his union for help were unsuccessful. He also claimed the couple was having trouble recovering copies of professional licenses from Kaiser.
"So after a horrendous ordeal my wife felt it better to end our lives and why leave our children in someone else's hands," he wrote in the letter.
Lupoe called cops at 8:22 a.m. Tuesday, saying he had discovered his wife and children dead in the house.
The smell of gunshot residue permeated the air as officers reached the house at 8:26 a.m. Cops found the bodies of Ana and twin 2-year-old boys, Benjamin and Christian, in an upstairs bedroom of the five-bedroom stucco house in Wilmington, Calif., a working-class neighborhood near Long Beach.
Ervin Lupoe's body was found in an adjacent bedroom with 8-year-old daughter Brittney and twin 5-year-old girls, Jaszmin and Jassely.
The victims had been shot to death, apparently with the same revolver found near the father's body, said Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Kenneth Garner. Records show Ervin Lupoe was licensed to carry a gun.
"This was a financial- and job-related issue that led to the slayings," Garner said. "In my 32 years , I've never seen anything like this."
Police said the Lupoes' three oldest children were withdrawn from public school about two weeks ago, suggesting something was amiss.
Kaiser Permanente officials confirmed the Lupoes were "recently terminated."
"We are deeply saddened to hear of the deaths of the Lupoe family," hospital officials said.