Five members of a West Valley City family were found deceased Tuesday in their residence and a 17-year-old boy, also a family member, was found in the garage with gunshot wounds.
The juvenile was transported to an area hospital for treatment.
The deceased are identified as a 42-year-old man, a 38-year-old woman, and their three younger children, a son, age 11, and daughters, ages 9 and 2. The older teen, found alive, was the oldest child in the household.
West Valley City Police spokeswoman Roxeanne Vainuku told reporters gathered at the scene, near the 3700 block of Oxford Way, that an extended family member first asked police to do a welfare check a couple days ago. Officers responded, but no one answered the door, and no signs of foul play could be detected from outside the residence. Officers did look in windows and talk to neighbors, she said.
“Today, the woman who lives inside this home did not show up for work, so that same family member did come back to the house and actually entered the garage of the home,” Vainuku said.
“Inside the garage, she found one of the family members who lives here, a 17-year-old male, and he appeared injured. So the family member called us again and we came out. When we got here, we found the 17-year-old male, alive in the garage, with what appeared to be a gunshot wound.”
The five family members were then found dead inside the home.
Vainuku said police believe there are no outstanding suspects in the case, and the initial evidence points to the incident involving only the family members from the residence.
She said she could not speculate on the surviving teen’s role in the incident.
“We do not know, at this point, if he is a suspect in this case or a victim in this case. And so because he is injured and he’s in the hospital, there are some challenges in communicating with him and finding out more information.”
Vainuku said police investigators were waiting for a search warrant to be issued to allow them to perform a thorough search of the crime scene.
