Utah mass murder: 8 family members, including 5 children found dead from gunshot wounds in a home.

According to authorities, eight family members, five of whom were youngsters, were discovered dead from gunshot wounds in a residence in southern Utah on Wednesday. They did not offer any other information or speculate on a possible motive for the killings.

According to a statement from city officials in Enoch, a small community of roughly 8,000 people located 245 miles (394 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City, the victims were discovered after police performed a welfare check at the property.

Police reported that they did not find any evidence of a public threat.

Rob Dotson, the city manager of Enoch, said the eight bodies shocked the neighborhood and that the dead, who were all members of one family, were well-known in the small southern Utah town.

Dotson stated in a video statement on Wednesday night that “many of us have worked with them in church, in the community, and gone to school with these individuals.”

“At the moment, this community is in pain. They’re grieving, they’re in agony, and they’re filled with questions,” Dotson continued, stressing that authorities intended to reveal additional details as they became available as the police investigation developed.

Dotson choked up briefly as he stated, “We won’t know the mindsets, the thoughts of the people who suffered this tragedy, but we can all pray that their families and the neighbors and everybody will come to an understanding of what transpired in this location, perhaps in a day or two, or maybe longer.”

When people go unnoticed for an extended period of time, welfare checks based on calls to the police department, like the one that brought them to the house where the deaths were discovered, are customary, according to Dotson.

According to a letter to parents, the five kids attended schools in the Iron County School District.

In 2021, there was significant flooding in Enoch, off Interstate 15, in rural Utah, roughly north of Cedar City and about 80 miles (128 kilometers) west of Bryce Canyon National Park. This flooding resulted in damage to hundreds of residences.

Spencer Cox, the governor of Utah, expressed sympathy in a tweet on Wednesday evening.