Apparent well off happy family of 5 found dead in different rooms of mansion.

Nydailynews

Three teens and their parents were killed in an apparent murder-suicide that created an “unspeakable” scene at their Minnesota mansion, police said.

Police discovered the gruesome scene Thursday during a welfare check days after the family had last been seen and the kids had missed their first days of high school, South Lake Minnetonka Police Interim Chief Mike Siitari said.

Their bodies bore traumatic injuries and were found scattered throughout the $2 million home in Greenwood, a small lakeside village about 20 miles west of Minneapolis, the Star Tribune reported.

“There are no words to describe it … It’s a tragedy,” Siitari said, noting it’s the worst crime scene he’s seen in his 30 years on the force. “This is a tough one to handle.”

The family was identified as Brian and Karen Short and their children, Cole, 17, Madison, 15, and Brooklyn, 14.

Police did not release information on how the family died or which relative was believed to be the killer.

This is heartbreaking and extremely sad, but also doesn't make the least bit of sense if it is to be believed it was a murder-suicide. The husband and father created a nurses social network that was pretty big and rejected a good number of buyout offers. They lived in a mansion, just got back from a vacation from cancun and seem rather happy family, with friends and co-workers stating that they were friendly, happy and involved people.

1st thing that came to mind while reading this story was that it didn't feel like a murder-suicide, more like a hit. And the 1st reason that comes to mind of why this family would of came to this end, would be the rejection of buyouts for his allnurses.com site.

I'm curious to see what ATS members think and more so curious to see if you all can dig up anything else about this. Because frankly, I feel like there is ALOT more to this story than being told or maybe just not known.

Please send out good thoughts to the rest of their family and friends.

a reply to: Tranceopticalinclined

Professional hits seldom target anyone other than the intended victim unless of course they were trying to cover there tracks by way of making it look like a serial killing. That being said 5 body's in different rooms is rather strange indeed.

Definitely seems fishy but without knowing how they died it's hard to make any kind of judgement.

Since they were all in separate rooms it implies that the killer went room to room and killed them each separately, and apparently quietly, and then chose a room to take their own life.

Can't imagine a gun would be involved without the others hearing the shots and trying to escape the home/bar the door. But again, with no knowledge of the crime scene all we can do is make guesses.

What a shame. Hope they're in better places.
Are there any further details available yet?

-Toy the Bear

a reply to: andy06shake

Strange but not unheard of ..

www.dallasnews.com... lines/20130313-police-four-found-dead-inside-mesquite-home.ece

a reply to: Ashirah

Buddy to be rather frank not a lot in this world surprises me with regards to humanity's penchant for genocide. If it can be done, it probably has been done before.

a reply to: Tranceopticalinclined

I have a theory, that i wish not to discuss, because its too sickening, and it applies in other similar cases too,
but i will say, that devil worship has a part in this,

i know, i know sounds silly right? but it still happens. and its not just knocking down tombstones and cutting yourself.

I hope i am wrong, because this kind of stuff creeps me out.
And i hope i do not offend anyone by my rather out-there theories.

a reply to: solve

A little early to be subscribing to devil worship regarding the event considering we don't really have any of the details. I will admit it could possably be ritualistic but we need more information.

a reply to: Tranceopticalinclined

You describe the family as being wealthy, happy, and involved people -
I have no doubt, that this could very well be the case.

But there is a lot of information we still don't know yet.

If it was a Murder/Suicide, most people would likely assume that it was done by one the adults; such as the husband.

But if they were so as 'well off', as they appeared to be -
I can see why this wouldn't really seem to make much sense.

SO, that being said... I wonder if possibly, that this was infact done by the 17yr old son... (again, not enough information yet)

But a very interesting case... I'll be following - because now it has my attention.

Thank you all for the replies, some interesting concepts you've mentioned.

I've found out a few more tidbits,

the site that the husband / father created in the 90s, was and is still the world's largest nurses social network.

As well we have a site called Star Tribune

Posting a few stories on their site about the same event, only they state in the beginning :

The father in a family of five found dead in their Greenwood home Thursday shot and killed his wife and three teenage children before turning the gun on himself, sources told the Star Tribune Friday.

Brian Scott Short, 45, killed his wife, Karen Anne Short, 48; and his three children, Cole, 17; Madison, 15, and Brooklyn, 14, in their mansion near Lake Minnetonka, the sources said.

However this is found a few paragraphs down from the above quote :

Police haven’t released the victims’ names, ages, or manner of death. But a notice on the father’s work website said that the victims were the home’s owners, Brian and Karen Short, and their children.

So I'm a little at a loss as to what to believe, why does the star tribune have all these other stories about the same event, and seemingly contradicts themselves.

Regardless of their deal, it's just a very weird story and sad at that. I hope more light is shed on this issue, as the days go on and more investigation has been done.

I read about this case in a couple of different news websites. sad. but nothing really shocks us anymore. I was hoping we could look at this case as a trial investigation, and share ideas and hypothesis based upon evidence/facts as they most undoubtedly will come n the future. abit macabre. but cases like this pique my interest.
we know that family was silent from school and work for 2 days. bodies were found in different rms, and police are not saying how the 3 children died. unless the incident happened over a number of days (not sunday/holidays and not at the same time, there should be a few days mail delivery in mailbox. affluent neighborhood that no one noticed anything odd about the house for a few days. cars never moved... newspapers in driveway... money troubles? mental issues of anyone in the family? some sleuths out there?

There is a menu category on that website called the Breakroom. It seems to be a discussion group and I noticed there are some discussions about nurses who get depression. Brian Short was a practicing nurse also, wasn't he? I think the website mentioned that.

Anyway, I don't know if depression is common among nurses or not, but I do know that antidepressants have been shown to have some very scary side effects such as suicidal or homicidal thoughts, especially if discontinued suddenly. So sad this happened. Just wondering if he may have been taking such medications.

a reply to: queenofswords

I suppose that's a possibility considering the murders Tomas Hamilton committed while on the drug Prozac.

a reply to: Tranceopticalinclined

I'm seeing good reason for your suspicions. Murder suicides are open and shut.
And they would know immediately which one suicided and wouldn't have any
reason to with hold that info. I'm on board.

Hell if the cops have any way at all to call it murder suicide they will.
Less work. So I'm on board anyway.

One victim was found in a bedroom, a second in the basement garage, two others in the basement and the last in a lower-level bedroom.

LINK

Not really knowing which victim was found in the garage, it could be that that victim was coming home and stumbled upon an intruder committing the murders and then was killed themselves.

From the same link:

Scanner conversations between police and dispatchers indicated that all the victims appeared to have died of severe injuries.

I remember hearing/reading (?) that particularly brutal murders indicate an intimate relationship, an emotional connection.
I'm sure the ATS members more intelligent than I could comment more on that.

I suppose nothing appeared missing from the home or it would have been mentioned?
I like to investigate so of course I found the son and Mom's FB pages...nothing to REALLY indicate a BIG problem on his. Typical teenage stuff...

ETA: How would one "severely injure" oneself?

a reply to: TNMockingbird

Good points, although I'm just having a hard time finding any possible reason to do this.

I mean most of the info I have found about the family, doesn't point to much of a reason, of course people don't always post about problems, but you'd imagine something to indicate problems. But family and friends even co-workers speak very highly of each one of the family members.

You are correct about more brutal the event that the more likely it's an passion crime. But also that's widely known information, so if someone wanted to set that up, they wouldn't have a hard time doing so.

The severity of the crimes could also be to cover up the fact they could of died from other circumstances and were merely place and further injured after the matter to throw police off the trail.

a reply to: Tranceopticalinclined

5 people dead in different rooms. Police teams will be all over the place with all sorts. If the body's have been moved or tampered with in anyway the would know. Or will know after proper post mortem is performed.

originally posted by: Bennyzilla
Definitely seems fishy but without knowing how they died it's hard to make any kind of judgement.

Since they were all in separate rooms it implies that the killer went room to room and killed them each separately, and apparently quietly, and then chose a room to take their own life.

Can't imagine a gun would be involved without the others hearing the shots and trying to escape the home/bar the door. But again, with no knowledge of the crime scene all we can do is make guesses.

Reminds of very infamous case I am sure everybody has heard of.

The DeFeo murders in 1974. It occured just be before the Lutz family moved into the same house on Ocean avenue in Amityville NY.

Ronald DeFeo Jr.

All six of the victims were found lying on their stomachs in their beds with no signs of a struggle. The police investigation concluded that the rifle had not been fitted with a sound suppressor and found no evidence of sedatives having been administered, leading to speculation that someone in the house should have been awakened by the noise of the gunshots. Police officers and the medical examiner who attended the scene were initially puzzled by the rapidity and scale of the killings and considered the possibility that more than one person had been responsible for the crime. Neighbors did not report hearing any gunshots being fired, and those who were awake at the time of the murders simply heard the dog barking.[9]

I just love how people assume if you have money, it means you're happy & everything's swell all around. No, people, it just means you've got money, it doesn't mean you're not capable of snapping for any one of a myriad of reasons & thus at that moment being anything but happy.

Maybe the wife wanted a divorce, sole custody & alimony & he snapped under all that. Maybe they're devoutly religious with a gay kid who came out of the closet & someone went bonkers on everyone. Maybe one of them was mental in some manner they kept under wraps to keep up the well-off happy family facade & they hit the mentally ill violence point of no return. Maybe mom or dad played the stock market, gambled big & lost every penny they had & killed everyone over it. Or maybe the other spouse did it in retaliation. Maybe one's a rabid casino gambler & the same applies.

Just because they're wealthier than you are doesn't mean their life was perfect by any means. They're still humans and still susceptible to the same familial dysfunction & catastrophic no-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel eff ups as the rest of us, both within & beyond their control. And they're also still just as capable as a family in a trailer park of murder-suicide. If you think your life sucks bad enough or think you're effed too badly or angry enough, money doesn't mean salvation, rich or poor.

a reply to: Nyiah

I suppose people generally make the assumption that people of means and monies are happy because life being poor can be so hard and challenging. Kind of a grass is always greener on the other side mentality.