An Ohio sheriff says the evidence is leaning toward murder-suicide after a disabled toddler and his grandparents were found shot dead inside a Gnadenhutten home.
Deputies found 22-month-old Kozzar Lotut, 51-year-old Melissa Campbell, and 67-year-old Gale Sanders dead with apparent gunshot wounds inside a home on Cherry Street in Gnadenhutten, Ohio, after a troubled 911 call on Wednesday.
Tuscarawas County Sheriff Orvis L. Campbell said investigators are treating the case as a suspected murder-suicide and are confident the shootings happened inside the house. The toddler had medical disabilities, and the grandparents had been caring for him.
The discovery began with a 911 hang-up. Dispatchers called back several times. On one attempt, someone picked up and a voice softly said the word “help.”
First responders struggled to trace the call. Through further investigative work, they tracked it to the home on N. Cherry Street in Tuscarawas County. A great-grandmother opened the door and let investigators inside, where the three bodies were found.
Fox News reported the sheriff’s assessment of the scene and the direction of the probe.
Sheriff Campbell told WOIO:
"Right now, if I had to say the evidence was leaning one way, it’s definitely leaning towards a murder-suicide. We’re pretty confident, you know, that it happened within the home,"
No public statement has named who fired the shots or in what order the victims were killed. Motive has not been released.
The bodies were taken to the Tuscarawas County Coroner’s Office for autopsies. Manner and cause of death remain pending.
The coroner’s office said:
"Additional information will be released as it becomes available and as appropriate,"
Melissa Campbell, one of the adults found dead, appeared to have worked as a registered nurse at New Philadelphia Health Care Center in Ohio. American Medical Administrators operates that facility. Fox News Digital sought comment from the company.
The Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office described the 911 sequence in a release that included the soft plea for help. Beyond that call and the sheriff’s public comments, officials have released little about weapons, other people in the home, or a full map of family relationships among the victims and the great-grandmother who opened the door.
Three people are dead, including a medically fragile toddler who depended on the adults in that house. Until the coroner finishes the work and the sheriff’s office fills in the gaps, the public is left with a lean case file and a hard conclusion already taking shape.
When a disabled child and the grandparents who cared for him die by gunfire in their own home, the least the public can demand is a full accounting, not silence, spin, or delay dressed up as process.
