{"id":322079,"date":"2026-11-06T01:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T01:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/322079\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T01:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T01:14:12","slug":"mt-lebanon-community-encouraged-to-put-up-christmas-lights-early-to-honor-3-killed-in-murder-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/322079\/","title":{"rendered":"Mt. Lebanon community encouraged to put up Christmas lights early to honor 3 killed in murder-suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mt. Lebanon community remains in mourning after the sudden deaths of two children and their father in a murder-suicide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Loved ones, friends, and strangers are doing what they can to show their support for the children’s mother<\/a>. At Carla Shinners’ home, bright lights twinkle from trees in a display honoring the young lives cut short.<\/p>\n

“It’s heartbreaking and devastating,” Shinners said.<\/p>\n

Authorities said 42-year-old Patrick Lynch, 8-year-old James Lynch and 6-year-old Caroline Lynch died in a murder-suicide on Tuesday in the township. Days later, the tight-knit community came together as the children’s mother, Anna, asked people to put up their Christmas decorations early.<\/p>\n

“Christmas lights bring joy to people. It lights things up,” Shinners said.<\/p>\n

It was an easy decision for Shinners, who hung strands of light with custom colors. She chose white for purity, gold or eternal life, and purple for dignity.<\/p>\n

“It’s a call to action, something you can do, something in a time where you feel hopeless and\/or helpless, everybody can do a little bit of something,” Shinners said.<\/p>\n

Kristen Palumbo felt the same way, taking out her globe lights and decorating the tree in her front yard.<\/p>\n

“Putting the lights up feels like we’re doing something to help,” Palumbo said.<\/p>\n

Now they’re just waiting for their neighbors to join them.<\/p>\n

“I hope it just brings some peace to the family. To be honest, just makes them feel like everyone’s trying to help them, that they’re not alone,” Palumbo said.<\/p>\n

They’re shining a light all around in a dark time.<\/p>\n

“I just wish that these lights and everything can bring a little glimmer of hope,” Shinners said.<\/p>\n

On top of putting up lights, if you would like to share a message with the family, you can do so at the main office at Markham or Washington elementary schools.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mt. Lebanon community remains in mourning after the sudden deaths of two children and their father in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[894,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-322079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-allegheny-county","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}