HEATHROW, Fla., June 16 (UPI) -- A Florida man, beset by financial difficulties, apparently shot and killed his wife and two children before killing himself inside their home, officials said.
Federal bankruptcy court papers indicated the family living in the gated community of Heathrow, Fla., was heavily in debt and had been struggling financially for five years, the Orlando Sentinel reported Tuesday.
A cleaning lady Monday found the bodies of John Dillon Woods, 41; his wife, Cynthia, 40; and their children Aubrey, 12; and Dillon, 10, in the Lakeside, Fla., subdivision, the Seminole County Sheriff's Office said. A preliminary investigation indicated John Wood shot and killed his wife and children, and then himself, Sheriff Don Eslinger said.
John and Cynthia Wood filed for bankruptcy in 2004 and spent the intervening years trying to repay a debt that included more than $100,000 in credit card bills, the Sentinel reported. As of March, documents indicated the Wood family still owed creditors $85,000. The Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection filing was converted to a Chapter 7 liquidation-of-assets filing in December 2007. A status hearing was scheduled for August.
"It's a huge tragedy. There's no other way to describe it," Eslinger said.
Investigators said family members were last seen Friday and two vehicles parked outside the house hadn't been moved since.
