LOS ANGELES – A man who fatally shot his wife, five young children and himself Tuesday had earlier faxed a note to a TV station claiming the couple had just been fired from their hospital jobs and together planned the killings as a final escape for the whole family.

"Why leave the children to a stranger?" Ervin Lupoe wrote, according to KABC-TV.

The station called police after receiving the fax, and a police dispatch center also received a call from a man who stated, "'I just returned home and my whole family's been shot."

Officers rushed to the home in Wilmington, a small community between the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, about 8:30 a.m., apparently within minutes of the killings. Officers could still smell the gunshot residue in the air.

Although the fax asserted that Ana Lupoe planning the killings of the whole family, police Lt. John Romero said Lupoe was the suspect. A revolver was found next to his body.

Ana Lupoe's body was found in a downstairs bedroom with the bodies of the couple's twin 2-year-old boys. The bodies of an 8-year-old girl, twin 5-year-old girls were found alongside Lupoe's in an upstairs bedroom.

It was the fifth mass death of a Southern California family by murder or suicide in a year. Police urged those facing tough economic times to get help rather than resort to violence

"Today our worst fear was realized," said Deputy Chief Kenneth Garner. "It's just not a solution. There's just so many ways you find alternatives to doing something so horrific and drastic as this."

Lupoe removed three of the children from school about a week and a half ago, saying the family was moving to Kansas, the school principal told KCAL-TV. Crescent Heights Elementary School Principal Cherise Pounders-Caver said nothing seemed to be troubling Lupoe at that time; she did not ask why the family was moving.

Kaiser Permanente Medical Center West Los Angeles released a statement confirming both Lupoe and his wife worked there; both were medical technicians.

"We are deeply saddened to hear of the deaths of the Lupoe family," it said in a statement.

In the letter he faxed to a TV station, Ervin Lupoe claimed he and his wife both had been fired and that she suggested they kill themselves and their children, too. Police described the fax but did not release the details.

KABC reported that the man claimed in the fax that a medical center administrator rebuffed them when they showed up to work, told them to file a union grievance and said, "You should have blown your brains out."

Lupoe wrote that they filed a grievance but nothing was done and two days later they were fired, KABC said.

"They did nothing to the manager who started such and did not attempt to assist us in the matter, knowing we have no job and five children under 8 years old with no place to go. So here we are," the note said.

At the bottom of the note, Lupoe wrote, "Oh lord, my God, is there no hope for a widow's son?"

The Kaiser Permanente statement made no comment on the claims in Lupoe's fax.

"He was going through some critical situations at the job, that's what he described in that two-page letter, ongoing problems at the job, and that's what prompted him to take his own life and his family's, from what was said in the fax letter," Garner said.

The two-story home, much larger than its one-story neighbors, sits in front of a railroad track in Wilmington, a small community about 18 miles south of downtown. A children's playset stood in the backyard.

Retired truck driver Jaime Solache, who lives a few doors down, said many of these newer, larger homes in the neighborhood had gone into foreclosure. The Lupoe house, which has a sign hanging above the driveway reading "The Lupoe's Pad," is about 6 years old, Solache said.

News of the killings sent shivers through the community, and several neighbors came to the yellow police tape to watch a steady procession of officials enter and leave the home.

"This area right here is quiet, calm," said Armando Chacon, who lives one block north. "People like to sit out at weekends and barbecue. Other than this, no problems at all."

A community meeting was planned later Tuesday in a local church.

It was the fifth mass death of a Southern California family by murder or suicide in a year.

On Dec. 24, a man dressed up as Santa Claus invaded a Christmas Eve party at his ex-wife's parents' home in suburban Covina. His ex-wire and eight of her relatives died from gunshots or in the house fire he set. The man later killed himself.

In October, an unemployed financial manager despairing over extreme money problems shot and killed his wife, three children, mother-in-law and himself in their home in the Porter Ranch area of the San Fernando Valley.

In June, five members of a Turkish-American family, clad in black, were found dead in an upscale home in San Clemente. Investigators say it was apparently a suicide pact but the reason is a mystery.

It's going to keep happening in a society where the rich and the corporations are more important than the rest of us and we can't turn to the government that bleeds us dry for help.

that's gonna be me one day.

Sad.

Unbeleiveable and sad

Sad.

But I have to wonder if this was truly a last resort for the family? Surely there had to have been other options they may have been unaware of, or even ignored? Foster care for the children or even the parents temporarily applying for welfare have to have been preferable to killing 7 people.

Sadly, I don't think this is the only story like this we'll be hearing. As long as the system is designed to benefit no one but the already very rich, there will be people resorting to desperate and extreme measures.

Did this person really say that?

Wow, this shows how insensitive and cutthroat people can be.

It's sad how people don't look out for one another anymore,
guess this is a learning example on how to not treat people since you never know what you say and how it will affect them.

I don't want to speak out of turn but could this be a case of the husband
living a high lifestyle and then freaking out when they no longer had job
security. It's happening every day. They go out and do drastic things rather
than have a plan b. Some people that are just living comfortable rather than
try to keep up with the joneses generally deal with a situation such as this
better. Sad state of the world and it may get uglier before it gets better.

I wouldn't, couldn't even conceive of taking their lives, but the idea of foster care is beyond horrible. I could never send my children into foster care.
[Edited 1/27/09 17:31pm]

These men are fucking sick. I know women do this shit to but these men....

phunkdaddy said:

That could've been part of the problem.

StillGotIt said:

So you'd just kill them instead?

Surely there must have been a relative, a neighbour, a community organization of some kind that could have helped out with the situation. Even temporary income assistance and YES, foster care too should have been thought over first.

The foster care system is only as bad as our complacency has allowed it to be. I won't get into it too much so as to avoid threadjacking, but it seems most people really don't give a shit what happens to the kids within that system as long as it's not their own children. The only reason foster care has been allowed to get as bad as it has is because we've let it.

I heard this on the news as I was waking up this morning with a bad cold, pms, and feeling bad for my own self. Puts things into perspective. My prayers for the children killed.

Unbelievable.

this is kinda like the old stock market crash when all kindsa dudes were jumping off that bridge in LA....terrible.

Vendetta1 said:

They weren't laid off, they were fired.
I don't think it was about the rich and corporations.

meow85 said:

Why are these deaths being blamed on 'the system'?
[Edited 1/27/09 22:46pm]

SUPRMAN said:

Because many of these individuals feel (wrongly IMO) that this is their last viable option. Individual autonomy only goes so far, as we all function within the "system". None of us are as immune to its affects as we want to think we are.

I think, with stories of these deaths hitting the news, that we should collectively be asking ourselves what's gone wrong with our society that so many people (as this is neither the first nor will it be the last such story) can not or will not bring themselves to consider other options before death. There had to have been other options available to this family, and yet there's no evidence they even attempted to make use of them. Why?
[Edited 1/27/09 23:43pm]

I just read this blurb on Yahoo, I really can't take the level of crazy out there these days. How in the FUCK do you take out the very people you love? Your CHILDREN & WIFE???

meow85 said:

they got FIRED. and they had a bunch of kids they couldn't support. clearly they're insane if they thought they and the kids were better off dead than with a stranger or without jobs.

this is not the system at work. this is ridiculous.

i feel for the children. imagine what their lives were like being raised by nutjobs like these.

errant said:

I don't know about that. We -especially those of you in the United States -live in a society that shames and looks down on those on welfare or who can't look after themselves and their own. It's not far-fetched that some may have bought too much into that outlook and taken things to extremes.

phunkdaddy said:

very true. a story heard too many times.

meow85 said:

good points; both of you.

meow85 said:

well blaming "the system" or everyone else for one's own fucked up mentality is certainly no way to get right with the world.

errant said:

Neither is thinking people live in bubbles with no effect from the world they live in.

I'm not blaming the system. I'm saying that no one is immune from it.

http://abclocal.go.com/ka...id=6627537

read the letter...

Very sad...I'm afraid there are going to be a lot more stories like this in the future. People just can't cope