GRAND HAVEN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WWMT) \u2014 Neighbors are struggling to make sense of the deaths of eight family members, including six children, who were found inside a Michigan home after a fire led first responders to the scene.<\/p>\n
Firefighters responded to the home Friday morning after reports of smoke. As crews battled the fire, they discovered the bodies of two adults and six children between the ages of 5 and 15. Investigators later said some of the victims had been shot, and authorities are treating the case as a suspicious death investigation.<\/p>\n
“We saw the white smoke coming out of the side of the house, and then the front window blew out,” neighbor Julie Hoover recalled.<\/p>\n
Hoover said she often saw the children heading to the school bus before work and never imagined something so devastating could happen.<\/p>\n
“We saw them getting on the bus almost every day when I went to work,” she said. “They were always getting on the bus.”<\/p>\n
Another neighbor, Jennifer Brininstool, said she initially believed firefighters were responding to a routine house fire before learning what investigators had found inside.<\/p>\n
“It’s pretty dark,” Brininstool said. “Everybody feels very unsettled.”<\/p>\n
A neighbor who asked not to be identified described one of the adults who lived in the home as a “superstar teacher.”<\/p>\n
The local school district said it is preparing grief counseling and other support services for students, families and staff affected by the tragedy.<\/p>\n
“Our hearts are with all those impacted, and we know many throughout our community may be grieving and struggling to process this news,” Superintendent Kristin Perkowski said in a statement. “Although school is not currently in session, we will be ready to respond if and when additional information becomes available.”<\/p>\n
Brininstool said the tragedy has been especially difficult for children in the community.<\/p>\n
“They had communicated with me this morning that they didn’t sleep last night because they don’t know all that happened,” she said.<\/p>\n
Neighbors said the heartbreaking discovery has prompted many to reflect on the importance of knowing and checking in on those who live nearby.<\/p>\n
“I did hear some neighbors say that we wish we would go out and talk more as a neighborhood and kind of get together more because this is something that you just don’t think is going to happen,” Hoover said.<\/p>\n
Authorities have not released the identities of the victims. Investigators expect to provide another update after autopsies are completed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GRAND HAVEN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WWMT) \u2014 Neighbors are struggling to make sense of the deaths of eight family…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-387575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}