Mark Meeks, Wife Jennifer Dallas-Meeks & Two Children Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide

Well, here we go again. Another murder-suicide. According to the Columbus Dispatch, police suspect a murder-suicide in the deaths of a couple and their two small children. The cops have not released the names, but Mike Meeks said that they are his brother, Mark Meeks, 51; his brother's wife, Jennifer Dallas-Meeks, 40; and their children, Abby, 8, and Jimmy, 5. The bodies were found in a ranch home owned by the couple at 918 Beechwood Rd.

Whitehall police refused to say last night how the four died or whether a weapon was found. "It has the markings of a murder-suicide," Sgt. Daniel Kelso said without elaborating. "This is not a high-crime area."

Relatives of the couple called police a little before 2 p.m. requesting that officers check on the family's well-being, Kelso said. Police found the four bodies upon arrival. Neighbor Stephanie Grunkemeyer, 37, said she saw Mark Meeks shoveling his driveway about 11 a.m. yesterday.

"They were really good people. I'm shocked," she said. "The kids were just the cutest. They'd come play in our yard -- they always wanted to play -- and we'd color the same coloring book a million times."

Mark Meeks worked as a service manager for a car dealership and Dallas-Meeks was a stay-at-home mom who sold candles from home, said Mike Meeks, 49, of Columbus. "He was just a good family guy," Meeks said of his brother. "Mark was just the kind of guy who never met a stranger, and he could sell ice to the Eskimos." Source: Columbus Dispatch

A neighbor said that the father had recently lost his job and was rehired three weeks ago. Investigators have said that this may have been a factor in the deaths. This news comes one day after police in Wilmington, Ca., found the bodies of Ervin and Ana Lupoe and their five children. Lupoe was in debt and had recently been fired from his job. This is a really sad turn of events and I suspect that we will hear more murder-suicides in the news as the economy continues to deteriorate. This is a selfish way to go, but sometimes one comes to a breaking point of irrationality where there seems to be no hope. There is hope, no matter how dark and treacherous the path forward seems to be.

I am appalled that this case has flown under the radar. This was not broadcast in the mainstream media as the murder-suicide of the Lupoe family in California. It would be equally shameful if this is a deliberate move on their part to keep this out of the daily news. If that is the case, I can only conclude that this action was racially motivated. The outcry should be the same. Mr. Meeks, for what is worth, committed a selfish and heinous act. Yes, no matter how dark it may seem, neither Mr. Meeks nor Mr. Lupoe had the right to take the lives of their wives and children.