A Utah family murder-suicide could have been prevented, say relatives. Benjamin and Kristi Strack, who allegedly killed their three children and took their own lives last month, were suffering from mental illness, and showed signs of distress prior to the tragedy, according to family members.
The Utah family murder-suicide, which rocked an entire community, could have been stopped, according to a relative. On September 27th, Benjamin and Kristi Strack, their children, Benson, 14, Emery, 12, and Zion, 11, were all found dead in their home in Springville, Utah.
Many believed that it was a murder-suicide because of an unidentified red liquid drink found near each of the children and parents. There were also several empty bottles of liquid methadone, boxes of cold and flu medication in the bedroom, where the bodies were discovered.
Benjamin Strack’s brother, Isaac Strack, has spoken to PEOPLE saying that while cleaning the home, he found a letter that confirms that the family died during a murder-suicide.
According to Isaac, few days prior to the deaths, Benson wrote a goodbye letter that indicated that he knew that he was going to die soon. Mr Strack said:
“It was pretty clear that it was a goodbye letter.It indicated that Benson was aware that something was going to happen. Benson at least had some idea that he might be found dead someday.”
Strack told the magazine that he is certain that the couple was suffering from mental illness and were abusing substances. The grieving family member said that the pair was afraid of themselves and worried that fictive enemies were out to get them. He shared:
“Their mental illness combined with substance-abuse disorder is what led to this tragedy.Some of the changed behaviors before their deaths seemed out of place and didn’t make sense at the time. But looking back now, they make sense. And now we want to speak out to prevent other people from having to endure what we are enduring.”
Lt. David Caron, of the Springville Police Department, revealed that for the time being, he believes that the cause of death to be accidental, or intentional poisoning and will wait for the autopsy results that will be released end of November to get a confirmation.
Utah family murder-suicide or accidental death, the answer will be revealed soon and relatives may get some closure.
Why didn’t they just kill themselves? It makes me so sick when people decide to kill themselves and take someone with them, especially those beautiful kids who should not have died.
I say the relatives are to be partly to blamed because they all say that it could have been prevented, then why haven’t any one of the relatives report this or stood up for some type of prevention….
They say family of five, but I see they are 4 children?
Selfish behavior is all this is. Instead of giving those babies a chance they killed them in their final act of selfishness. I’m not religious. I think God has shown himself absent far to long and it seems clear to me that he does not care and perhaps never did care. Perhaps we are just one creation among many and the creator just moved on. I know folks will try and say otherwise but I don’t see any evidence that a God or Gods give a hoot about what’s going on in this world.
So why does it show 4 kids? Was there a 4th that survived? They don’t mention the 4th kid and he is shown in both photos. I think the writer missed something. It is a tragedy, for sure. Senseless. I feel for the family that is left behind to pick up the pieces.
The oldest son found them