A man fatally shot his wife and their six children, then himself, before they all were found in their burning Michigan home last week, investigators said Monday.
Kristopher and Amanda Karolkiewicz and their six children, aged 5 to 15, died Friday in their home in Grand Haven Township, on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. Authorities were summoned for a fire and then discovered the bodies.
The Ottawa County Sheriff's Department said in a release Monday that autopsies determined all the family members died of gunshot wounds, and that Kristopher Karolkiewicz took his own life.
“This is an unspeakable tragedy that we may never completely understand," Sheriff Eric DeBoer said in a statement read aloud at a news conference by one of his deputies, Capt. Jacob Sparks.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.
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The fire appears to have been set intentionally in multiple parts of the home after the killings, but officials still are investigating the origin point, Sparks said.
It's unclear exactly when the series of events began; officials got calls about a smoky smell in the area Monday morning, checked it out but found nothing. After getting more calls about three hours later, they returned, saw smoke coming from the Karolkiewicz home and found the bodies, at least some of them in bedrooms, Sparks said.
The family's dogs and at least one cat perished in the blaze.
Amanda Karolkiewicz, 39, an elementary school substitute teacher who went by Mandy, “was a kind and devoted soul who loved her family and her students,” her mother and stepfather, Becky and Steve Lawwill, said in a statement.
“We treasured every moment we had with her and her six children, and words cannot adequately address our devastation," they wrote, adding that they “pray for God’s peace and comfort as we grieve their deaths and honor their lives."
A message seeking comment were sent Monday to Kris Karolkiewicz's family.
The 47-year-old man was a vice president of sales and marketing for the American Heart Association from September 2023 to earlier this month, when his employment ended, an organization spokesperson said. The association did not release further details, saying it does not comment on personnel matters. While with the AHA, he worked remotely for a division responsible for CPR and first aid training and products, it said.
Mandy Karolkiewicz went “above and beyond for students, especially when they’re having a hard day, responding with empathy, patience, and care,” as the local school district put it in a Facebook post in January. A message seeking comment was sent Monday to the Grand Haven Area Public Schools system.
The couple met at work at a beverage company in 2008 and began dating that summer, according to a parenting-oriented blog that Mandy Karolkiewicz kept over a decade ago. The two married in August 2009.
Their first child was born on April 25, 2011, which she hailed as “the best day of my life (so far).” Two more sons followed over the next four years, as she shifted from a banking job to a part-time position at a local insurance agency and later stopped working outside the home. The couple later adopted two daughters and had another biological son.
The blog frequently expressed her Christian faith, her joy in the family and her love and appreciation for her husband and his parenting.
Kris Karolkiewicz, too, hailed their life together: “I’m a very lucky guy,” he wrote in a 2019 Facebook post ahead of their 10th anniversary.
Although her blog ended in 2016, Mandy Karolkiewicz continued sharing updates on her family and activities in TikTok videos, including clips of a trip to China earlier this month with two of her children.
Her family endured another loss in 2020, when her adult stepbrother died from a fentanyl overdose. Friends of her parents were launching a GoFundMe campaign Monday to help with expenses and establish a scholarship in the Karolkiewicz children's memory.
Grand Haven township is a community of about 18,000 people, about a half-hour drive west of Grand Rapids.
Another shooting wounded five people in Ottawa County early Sunday, when gunfire broke out at a party at the Bass River Recreation Area, One person was critically injured. A suspect has been arrested, the sheriff's office said.
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