In a development that shocked members of a church in the U.S., a pastor armed with a shotgun barged into the home of his estranged wife and fatally shot his daughter multiple times before killing himself.
Pastor Daniel Randall, 56, of the First Congregational Church in Bristol, Rhode Island committed the crime right after he was released from a 90-day stint in a rehab facility for alcoholism, according to the Portland Press Herald.
The pastor and his estranged wife Anita, who was not in the house when the crime was committed, were reportedly on the brink of a divorce.
Police found the body of his daughter Claire in the bathroom of the family home in Hebron, Maine. Daniel was found on the porch with a self-inflicted shot to the head. Authorities are calling the crime a murder-suicide.
Daniel left Liberty Bay Recovery Center in Portland on Thursday around 10 a.m., then purchased a shotgun, drove home and killed his daughter just before 2 p.m.
Before shooting himself, Daniel even spray-painted messages on the walls in five rooms of the house. One of the things he wrote was "VOW BREAKER."
Daniel served as a pastor for First Congregational Church for 12 years before resigning in December 2014. When Zachariah Smith, a former parishioner in Daniel's church, heard of the news, he was shocked because the crime did not reflect the man he once knew.
"My former pastor and dear, dear friend, for some awful and unknown reason, took his own life today. What's worse is he took his daughter's life as well," he said.
"I can only imagine the anguish and self-loathing he was going through to make such a rash decision," he added. "That was not the man I knew and loved. He became sick, and a whole bunch of us missed it. Please, please pray for the Randalls and for the community of the First Congregational Church of Bristol RI. Please to the faithful, add the Randall's to every prayer chain possible."
A neighbour, Carroll Daggett, 71, first discovered the bodies after Anita called her to check up on Claire because she was not answering her phone. When Daggett saw Claire's lifeless body on the floor, he told Anita to drive home immediately.
Daggett, an Army veteran, did not suspect Daniel capable of the crime he committed. "He seemed to be a very pleasant person," Daggett said of his new neighbor. "A sort of take-charge, family-type person."
Another family member named Molly also responded to the scene and asked for privacy during this difficult time. "We don't want to talk to anyone," she said. "Please respect us in this. It's very, very hard."
