Man Kills Family and Self in Unemployment Scare

By Sarah Harper

Published on January 30, 2009

Ervin Antonio Lupoe, a Los Angeles resident, shot and killed his wife and five small children before taking his own life earlier this week. Police believe that Lupoe called 911 threatening suicide and saying he had arrived home to find his family dead. Officers who found the bodies in the family's apartment described the crime scene as one of the grisliest they'd seen.

In a fax Lupoe sent to his former employer, Kaiser Permanente, before the murder, he blamed Kaiser for the deaths, since the company had recently fired him and his wife, who also worked for Kaiser. In the fax, Lupoe claimed that he and his wife felt it better to end their lives than to leave their children in "someone else's hands".

The Lupoes' co-workers described the couple as cheerful workers and loving parents. The murders have left the community in disbelief.

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