This is just... shocking. And unbelievably tragic. Earlier this week, a man in Iowa City violently killed his wife, his four children, then himself. Autopsies show that the five family members found in Steven Sueppel's home died from blunt force trauma to their upper torsos and heads. Sueppel first apparently tried to kill his kids and himself in their garage with carbon monoxide. When that failed, he beat them to death: Iowa City mom, kids were beaten to death. The four kids, Ethan, Seth, Mira and Eleanor, were adopted from Korea: Four Korean Adoptees Murdered in U.S.
After the children died, Sueppel tried to drown himself in the Iowa River without success. He then made a 911 call directing officers to his home and a few minutes later deliberately crashed his car on the freeway. The family van was found wrecked and burned on the interstate. The Des Moines Register has all the gruesome details on the crime, including various multimedia and a timeline of how it all unfolded: Police release more details of Iowa City deaths.
Sueppel was a former banker who had lost his job and was subsequently indicted on federal embezzlement and money-laundering charges. He was scheduled to go on trial next month.
Unfortunately, we seem to hear this kind of horrible family murder-suicide news a lot lately. I guess isn't much you can really say when something like this happens... But I'm going to. Only Sueppel will really know why he did what he did. But to me, this is the most selfish and cowardly act anyone could perpetrate. What kind of man does this? A guy who has no regard for anyone but himself. So he was facing a criminal trial. Time for him to man up and face the consequences of his action. There was simply no need for him to do this. What the hell did his children have to do with any of this? Coward. Do I sound out of line? Fine. The more I think about it, it makes me mad as hell. My sincere condolences to their friends and family.
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