Suspect in Family Killings Thought He’d Been Snubbed
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LANSING, Mich. — Prosecutors today said a lonely grandfather probably killed two members of his family and wounded three others last Sunday because he mistakenly thought it was Father’s Day and they hadn’t invited him to dinner.
Tape recordings made by Melville Nelson Henwood before the shooting that killed his daughter and son-in-law and wounded his wife and three grandchildren provided the clue.
Eaton County Prosecutor Michael Hocking said that he believes Henwood, 79, who remains in critical condition in a Lansing hospital with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the abdomen, was angry at not being invited to celebrate the day with his family.
On the tape, believed to have been made Saturday night, Henwood said that “he was even more depressed because Sunday was Father’s Day,” Hocking said. “I think that might have been the crowning blow.”
Father’s Day is June 15.
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