Five dead in murder-suicide, police say
Jan. 7—HIGH POINT — Three children and two adults were killed in what police are calling a murder-suicide Saturday at a house in north High Point that left residents of the usually quiet neighborhood stunned.
Police said it was one of the most deadly crimes in the city in close to two decades.
The High Point Police Department received a call at 7:05 a.m. Saturday from a man and woman screaming for help at a residence in the 2700 block of Mossy Meadow Drive, which is in a residential subdivision between Deep River Road and Eastchester Drive east of Oak Hollow Lake.
When officers arrived, they had to force open a door to enter the house, and they found five people dead.
As of Saturday afternoon, no information about those killed, including their names, the ages of the children or how they were killed, had been released.
Investigators are treating the deaths as a murder-suicide.
Capt. Matt Truitt said that in his 18 years with the High Point Police Department he had not experienced such a deadly incident.
"I've never seen anything like it," Truitt said.
Neighbors said it was a usually tranquil neighborhood.
Shellie MacMillan, who lives about four to five houses from where the killings happened, said, "It's always quiet here."
S.K. Patel, who lives down the street, said he had not noticed any disturbances at the house.
"Most people have lived in this neighborhood for at least 15 years," Patel said. "The biggest commotion you normally hear around here is the sounds of the garbage trucks picking up trash."
Neither Patel nor MacMillan knew the people who lived in the house.
On Saturday afternoon yellow police tape blocked an area around the intersection of Mossy Meadow Drive and Running Cedar Trail, which is a cross street off Deep River Road. About two dozen officers and approximately a dozen police cars were at the scene.
Police said further information wasn't being released because of the ongoing investigation.
These were the first homicides in High Point this year.
