YALE, Mich. -- A woman and her four adopted children were shot to death in their rural home Wednesday and sheriff's deputies said they were questioning a man about the slayings. It was Michigan's third mass killing in seven weeks.
A spokesman for the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department refused to identify the man, but officials had said earlier in the day they were seeking a 'family friend' for questioning.
The man was pulled over by deputies as he rode in a car near Yale, 75 miles northeast of Detroit, the spokesman said.
A neighbor found the five bodies at about 9 a.m. EST in the family's brick, ranch-style home in Brockway Township.
Prosecuting Attorney Robert Cleland said investigators were treating the case as a mass slaying and denied reports of a possible murder-suicide.
'It was the result of a homicide,' he said. 'There is no indication there is a suicidal gesture or act by any of the deceased.'
The five bodies were removed from the house shortly after 5 p.m. EST and taken in two ambulances to a hospital where autopsies were to be performed.
The victims were identified as Betty Giuliani and her children Erick, 19, Kathleen, 16, Cindy Joe, 13, and Dino, 9. All were adopted, authorities said.
Mrs. Giuliani's husband, Richard, was at work at the time the bodies were found, police said. Cleland declined to say if Giuliani was a suspect. He is a technician at the General Motors Corp. Tech Center in Warren.
Pat Russell, 29, who lives across the street from the Giuliani's, described the family as 'nice people. A nice quiet family that has been living there six or seven years.'
Miss Russell, who lives with her parents, said neither her mother or father said they heard anything Tuesdat night or early Wednesday. The Russells' home is the only one within nearly a half-mile of the Giuliani home.
'You hear it all the time and you read it in the papers, but you never think it can happen in your town, let alone across the street,' Miss Russell said.
'When something like this happens, you don't know what to say or think,' she said. 'You don't know what to say about what goes on in someone's mind.
'You never know what snaps or happens.'
Yale school Superinintendent Albert Kimmel said he was acquainted with the Giuliani family but knew Kathy, a high school junior, best.
'She was that kind of little gal who always smiled, always bubbled,' Kimmel said. 'She was an excellent singer and brought quite a bit of recognition to herself and the school.'
Kimmel said Kathy was a member of the school choir. He described Rick, the elder son, as 'a quiet boy' who played football and posed 'no problems' during his student years.
Rick graduated from high school last year and the three other children still attended school in the Yale school district.
Kimmel said news of the slayings shocked him and his staff. 'In fact, it was unbelievable when we first heard it. Nobody wanted to believethat.'
It was the third mass murder in Michigan since Feb. 16 when the bodies of seven family members were found at a farmhouse in Farwell in Clare County. The estranged husband of one of the victims has been charged with the slayings.
Five members of an Allendale family were found shot to death March 13 inside their burned-out Ottawa County home. Police have no motive and no suspects in that case.
