Man killed family, shoveled driveway

WHITEHALL, Ohio, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- An Ohio man killed his wife and two children, then shoveled the snow from his driveway and e-mailed his father-in-law before taking his own life, police said.

A neighbor who saw Mark Meeks shoveling Wednesday morning said that he "seemed fine," The Columbus Dispatch reported. Stephanie Grunkemeyer said she heard no gunshots and did not realize anything had happened until police pulled up.

Whitehall police arrived at the house after 2 p.m., three hours after Grunkemeyer saw Meeks. They found the bodies of Meeks and his wife, Jennifer Dallas-Meeks, in their bedroom, and the two children, Abbigail, 8, and Jimmy, 5, in their beds.

Jim Dallas called police immediately after he read the e-mail.

"In the e-mail he didn't come out and say what he was going to do," Whitehall Police Detective Steve Brown said. "But the information would lead the reader to believe that something was going to happen in the home or had happened."

Meeks also left a suicide note. Police have refused to disclose the contents, although investigators say that he gave reasons for his actions.