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Mother and daughter charged with killing 5 family members in Pennsylvania

Mother and daughter charged with killing 5 family members in Pennsylvania
Mother and daughter charged with killing 5 family members in Pennsylvania

There was nothing amiss when a social worker visited the family in Apartment S7 in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, on Feb. 5. When she went back to the unit Monday for a wellness check on the eight family members who lived there, no one answered her knock on the door, and a maintenance worker called the police, according to a criminal affidavit.

Inside, the apartment was in disarray, according to the affidavit, which was dated Tuesday. Broken glass was strewn around and furniture was turned over, it said. And in a back bedroom, five people, including three children, were found dead, their bodies sprawled across a bed or on the floor. A woman and a teenager were found alive, “disoriented” on a bed, it said.

On Tuesday, the woman, Shana S. Decree, 45, and her daughter Dominique K. Decree, 19, were each charged with five counts of criminal homicide and one count of conspiracy for the deaths of their relatives, authorities said. According to the affidavit, Shana Decree told police all of the apartment’s occupants had spoken about suicide and “wanted to die.”

On Tuesday, Matthew D. Weintraub, the Bucks County district attorney, said the two women were charged in the deaths of Shana Decree’s children, Naa’Irah Smith, 25, and Damon Decree Jr., 13. They were also charged with the deaths of Shana Decree’s sister, Jamilla Campbell, 42, and Campbell’s daughters, Erika and Imani Allen, 9-year-old twins.

Shana and Dominique Decree, who had superficial neck injuries, were taken to the hospital after police found them, the affidavit said.

Authorities were still seeking answers, Weintraub said Tuesday, and declined to comment on a possible motive, how the victims died and over what period. He also declined to comment further on Shana Decree’s comments about suicide, or which of the victims the two suspects had each allegedly killed. There are no other suspects in the case, he said.

“I am sure you are going to ask me why this has occurred and what the motivation is,” Weintraub said in the televised news conference. “We are no closer to understanding that in the harsh light of day.”

The two suspects were arraigned Tuesday and are being held at the Bucks County Correctional Facility without bail, said James O’Malley, a spokesman for the district attorney.

The eighth family member who lived in the apartment, a teenage son of Campbell, was not immediately located but he was later found unharmed, Weintraub said.

Chief George McClay of the Morrisville Borough Police said Campbell’s 17-year-old son, Joshua, was found staying with friends in Willingboro, New Jersey, The Associated Press reported.

At the hospital, Shana and Dominique Decree separately told police several men had killed the family, the affidavit said. Shana Decree later changed her story, it said, telling police, that “everyone at the apartment, including the 9-year-olds and the 13-year-old, wanted to die.”

She said, according to the affidavit, “all, including the children, were talking about suicide.”

The two suspects said Campbell had killed one of the family members, and then Dominique Decree said she fatally choked Campbell, the affidavit said. Weintraub said authorities were waiting for toxicology and coroner reports to confirm the cause and manner of the deaths.

It was not immediately clear whether the suspects had lawyers. Relatives could not immediately be reached Tuesday by telephone.

It was not immediately clear why the family had been visited by the social worker, from the Bucks County Children and Youth Social Services Agency. A person who answered the phone there referred questions to the county.

Julie Kelchner, deputy director of public information for Bucks County, declined to comment on the case because it was an active investigation.

Weintraub said that he could not provide a timeline of the events that had unfolded since the caseworker’s visit Feb. 5, but that investigators were working on several “theories.”

“Frankly, we’re still trying to sort everything out,” he said.

He appeared to be visibly shaken while providing the names of the twin girls.

“I wish I didn’t have to report it and I wish we didn’t have to deal with it,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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