Family of 5 Found Shot Dead in Maine Home

Police in Saco, Maine, say they're not seeking any other suspects after a mother and father and their three children were found shot dead yesterday afternoon inside their home. The bodies of the parents, who were in their mid-30s, and their children—boys ages 12 and 7 and a girl, 4—were discovered after a friend of the family called the apartment complex where they lived out of concern for their well-being, reports the Portland Press Herald. Neighbors say they heard a sound like "firecrackers" Saturday night and saw the father speed off in his car the next morning before returning to the home and slamming the door.

No suicide note was found, but "all indications are that no one outside of the family was responsible for the deaths," a police spokesman says. A long gun was found next to one of the bodies, he says. The father was a maintenance worker at the apartment complex in the city about 10 miles south of Portland, and neighbors describe him as friendly. "You'd walk by and he'd ask how your day was going. He was really nice," a neighbor tells the AP. Another neighbor who tried to befriend the mother, however, says the family always kept their blinds closed and describes the father as menacing. "If his eyes could kill, you’d be dead," she tells the Press Herald. (More Maine stories.)