NORRISTOWN, Pa., Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Marine Bradley Stone died in an apparent suicide hours after he killed his ex-wife and six members of her family in a rampage through the Philadelphia suburbs.
But a coroner said Wednesday the cause of Stone's death could not be determined. Montgomery County Coroner Walter Hofman said a wound on Stone's leg was not fatal, and any ruling on the cause of death must wait for the results of toxicology tests.
Stone's body was found in a wooded area near his home in Pennsburg, Pa., early Tuesday afternoon. Hofman said he had been dead for about 12 hours.
At a news conference that afternoon, District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said Stone, 35, stabbed himself to death.
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Stone was involved in a custody dispute with his ex-wife, Nicole Stone. After he learned she was being treated for drug abuse, he applied for an emergency custody order, which had not been resolved.
But Stone himself had several arrests for drunken driving. In 2013, he told a Montgomery judge he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after a combat tour in Iraq where he was wounded. He was sentenced to 23 months of "intermediate punishment" that included three months of house arrest and the surrender of his driver's license.
Stone was in Iraq for 2 1/2 months in 2008 and there is no record of his being wounded, the Marines told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Nicole Stone was the last person her ex-husband killed Monday, police said. He first killed her sister, brother-in-law and niece at their home in Souderton and her mother and grandmother in Lansdale. After killing Nicole, Stone took the two girls to a neighbor in Pennsburg.
Evan Weron, a neighbor in Harleysville, told the Philadelphia Inquirer he often saw Stone when he came to pick up his daughters, often accompanied by his new wife. He said Stone was friendly when he first saw him but became angrier as his custody fight heated up. He said Nicole talked to him about her concerns for her safety.
The Department of Veterans Affairs said Stone met with a psychiatrist last week and did not suggest he was feeling homicidal or suicidal.
