A military family of six, including four very young children, was found dead in an SUV in a San Antonio garage Thursday when police turned up to perform a welfare check.
The shocking discovery “appears to be a suicide” and the cause of death is suspected to be carbon monoxide poisoning though the medical examiner will investigate that, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus told reporters Thursday.
None of the family members’ names, nor the military branch to which the husband belongs, have been released.
The four children ranged in age from 11 months to four years old. Both the husband and wife were in their mid-to-late 30s.
The family, who moved into the home in January, had two pet cats, both of which were also found dead in a basket in the car’s front seat, SBG San Antonio reported Thursday.
Authorities were contacted around 10:30 a.m. local time Thursday when the remote-working husband didn’t call into work as he generally would and no one was able to reach him, McManus said.
Once cops arrived to the residence, they found a “very cryptic” note left on the front door.
“Some of it was military jargon, I’m told,” McManus told SBG San Antonio. “The interpretation of it was, there were people, bodies or people, inside and do not enter.”
Given the jarring warning, authorities sent in a robot to search for explosives, though none were found, McManus said.
An alert evacuated nearby streets but inadvertently went to more residents than it should have, a fire official told SBG San Antonio.
The deceased family members were found in the back of an SUV and the smell of carbon monoxide “kind of blew everybody back out the door,” the chief said.
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