KINGSTON, Jamaica, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Jamaican police were trying to determine Tuesday why a Kingston man used a meat cleaver to kill his three daughters and his wife before attempting suicide.
The Jamaica Gleaner said one of the daughters, a six-year-old, died Monday. Her two older sisters, aged 11 and 16, were hospitalized with severe wounds and hand amputations they suffered when they were attacked while they slept.
Police said they suspect their father, taxi driver Wilfred Rhoden, first attacked the girls' mother on a street with the cleaver, leaving her for dead in bushes. Her condition was not announced Tuesday.
Detectives told the Gleaner one of the injured girls managed to escape from the house and cry for help, attracting people at a nearby dance. Onlookers said Rhoden then jumped from the roof of the house with a noose attached to a tree around his neck. Neighbors cut him down from the tree before he strangled.
Rhoden is in protective custody and will face a psychiatric assessment.
