SAN ANTONIO – A 38-year-old Army staff sergeant and his 36-year-old wife killed their four children before committing suicide two months ago, San Antonio police said Friday.
The couple, along with their four children, ranging in age from 11 months to 4 years old, and their pets were found dead in an SUV in the garage of a home in Stone Oak on June 4.
“We can confirm that SAPD does believe both parents murdered their four young children,” SAPD spokeswoman Jennifer Rodriguez said in an email on Friday, adding new information to the gruesome crime scene discovery in the affluent North Side suburb.
Initially, it wasn’t clear if both parents participated in the slayings. Details have been limited as investigators have worked to piece together the incident.
The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office said that Jared Esquibel Harless and Sheryll Ann Harless died of carbon monoxide poisoning and ruled their deaths suicide. The children’s deaths have been ruled a homicide but the cause of death was not immediately available. A toxicology report is pending, authorities said.
Rodriguez said the police report would not be available because the case involved minors.
A motive has yet to be determined.
Jared Esquibel worked as a 35Q cryptologic cyberspace intelligence collector/analyst, according to information released from the military.