Two children killed, along with mother, when father commits murder/suicide in Wisconsin

A man in Da Pere, Wisconsin, shot and killed his two children and wife before killing himself. The couple had been dealing with problems related to a lay off and disability, and had been in a contested divorce.

According to a neighbor, the girl was 14, and the boy was 9 or 10. The kids and mother were friendly with the neighbor, but the father was anti-social and controlling of his wife.

Neighbors say and land records show Denis and Michelle Bay own the home at 1245 S. Erie St. in east De Pere, and the couple has two children, Andrea and Daniel, but police would not say whether these were the individuals at home during the shooting.

Police Chief Derek Beiderwieden said a man called police from inside the house about 3 p.m. to report that he had just killed three people and was about to kill himself. The phone line went silent, and others at the police station then heard a loud “pop,” the chief told the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

Officers arriving at the home a short time later found four victims — two adults and two children — shot to death in a bedroom of the single-story home. Authorities recovered a firearm they think is the weapon used in the apparent murder-suicide, he said.

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The Bays are going through a contested divorce, court records say, and Michelle, along with the children, had moved out about six months ago but returned home in the fall before the new school year, said Jane Nohr, who lives in the home behind the Bays.

“Why she went back with him I don’t know,” Nohr said.

The Bay family moved into the neighborhood about five years ago, said Nohr, who has lived at nearby 1244 O’Keefe Court for more than 30 years.

“I didn’t know the man very much,” Nohr said. “He was the kind of guy, if she was out talking to me, he’d send the kids to get her. He was very demanding.”

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