MAPLETON, Utah - Police are investigating a possible murder-suicide after finding a family of four and their dog shot to death in a home on the north end of Mapleton.
Later Friday police identified the deceased as 45-year-old Timothy Griffith, 42-year-old Jessica Griffith, 16-year-old Samantha Badel and 5-year-old Alexendre Griffith.
Police say Timothy and Jessica moved their family to Mapleton from Switzerland around July of this year after Timothy got a job in the area. Samantha is Jessica's daughter and Timothy's step-daughter, according to police.
The Nebo School district said they sent an email to parents and Maple Mountain High School, where Samantha attended as a sophomore, called in grief counselors on Friday and will make counselors available again on Monday.
Police discovered the family after receiving concerned calls from neighbors and coworkers who had not seen or heard from the family for days.
Officers went to the home near 1502 N. Highway 89 to do a welfare check around 9:30 p.m. Thursday.
Authorities removed a window and entered the home 45 minutes later, where they found the father, mother, teenage daughter, young son and the dog dead inside.
Doug Allan, who lives next door to the home, told Fox 13 Timothy Griffith had worked for Nestle overseas for more than 10 years and recently had an opportunity to transfer to the Nestle Stouffer's location in Springville.
Griffith was from the US and his wife was from Switzerland, Allan said.
He said the family was quiet and kept to themselves.
"It was quite a shock to me when I got up this morning... when I'd seen all the lights on over there and 15 or 20 cars," Allan said. "It seemed like everyone was getting along really good. I never seen any problems at all, just real quiet."
Allan said he recently spoke to Griffith and didn't sense that anything was out of the ordinary.
Mapleton City Police Chief John Jackson said their department had never been called to the family's home before Thursday.
“It is a big deal for our community and it’s going to rock our community," Chief Jackson said. "It’s going to tear some people up because these people up here care about each other.”
Police are waiting on the medical examiner's examination before ruling it a murder-suicide but said they do not believe the community is in danger.
Officers said they are not searching for suspects at this time.
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