Police revealed that Kristopher Karolkiewicz bought a gun just over one week before he killed his wife, Amanda “Mandy” Karolkiewicz, their six kids and himself in a murder-suicide.
The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office said that Kristopher, 47, purchased a 9 mm handgun eight days before the tragic events occurred on July 24, according to WOOD TV-8.
After Kristopher shot each of his family members, he set their home on fire before he died by suicide. The MSP Fire Investigation Unit said that the fire had multiple points of origin in the home, including each of the children’s bedrooms, a storage room and a closet under the stairs. The outlet also reported that a red plastic gasoline can was found in the kitchen.
“The cause of the fire is incendiary in nature,” the Michigan State Police incident report read, per WOOD TV-8. “The suspect utilized gasoline, paper towels and other combustible materials, (which) he ignited using an open-flame device such as a lighter.”
The report added that multiple smoke alarms were removed from within the home, while Mandy, 39, had recently insured the home just days before on July 21.
The family’s death certificates stated that all eight family members were shot in the head, according to WZZM 13. Meanwhile, the Michigan State Police incident report said that Mandy and Kristopher were found in their master bedroom. Mandy’s body was covered with blankets and a pillow over her head.
New details of the killings come after Us reported that Kristopher likely killed Mandy before he killed the kids.
A motive for the killings has not yet been revealed, but the couple was known to have experienced issues. Two years before the horrific killings, Mandy took to Reddit to open up about her marital problems with Kristopher and claimed that he previously cheated on her with an intern. She admitted she had a hard time moving forward with their relationship, but revealed they were working to rebuild their marriage.
Several of Mandy’s family members have spoken out following the tragedy. Her father, Gary Anderson, previously said that he loves Mandy and her six children. “In a way, I still love Kris,” Anderson told The Detroit News on July 31.
Anderson added that he was still struggling “to understand” why the murder-suicide happened.
“I’m sure that will come out in the future. I have no idea why,” he said. “Speculation is what I have a disdain for. It’s very clear that he did what he did.”
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