Five people, including two small children, were found dead in a northwest Calgary home yesterday, the victims of what cops called a domestic homicide that left the Dalhousie community heartbroken and police searching for answers.
Calgary police were called to the 5500 block of Dalhart Hill NW around 10 a.m. yesterday after a family member came to pick up one of the children for school and noticed something wasn’t right.
EMS were “horrified” when they entered the house and found three adults — one male, believed to be a 2003 University of Calgary master’s of architecture graduate — two adult females and two female children, aged 4 and 6, dead, and a one-year-old unharmed female survivor, who was turned over to protective services.
“We go to calls everyday where people have died, but when children are involved, it’s that much more challenging,” said Calgary EMS’s Paul Lapointe.
Police confirmed neighbour assertions that a female renter lived with the family, who moved into the sleepy suburban neighbourhood about three years ago, but wouldn’t reveal what ultimately led to the deaths, not believed to be random, as they are still investigating.
“These are hugely traumatic incidents, they’re organizationally traumatic, they’re traumatic for the community, we know the impact that exists,” said Calgary Police chief Rick Hanson, who said police could find no information suggesting that police had been to the house before.
“They seemed like a nice, perfect family,” said Ken Rathje, who lives nearby, remembering the children being always “happy” as they played outside every day, “even in winter.”
The lone survivor, a one-year-old girl, is shuttled away by
protective services in a car seat covered by a white blanket.
Ed and his grandson Joshua survey the scene outside of the
home where the five bodies were found.
