Home shooting may be murder-suicide gone awry, N.J. police say

PHILADELPHIA — A day after a shooting in New Jersey that left two children dead and their mother and brother in critical condition, police said on Friday it appeared to be a murder-suicide attempt gone awry.

Jeaninne LePage, 44, used a pillow to conceal the sounds of gunshots as she shot her three children before turning the gun on herself at their home in Tabernacle, New Jersey, state police said.

LePage remains in critical condition at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, along with her son, who police identified on Friday as 11-year-old Alexander Harriman.

The dead children were identified by police as 8-year-old Nadia Harriman and 14-year-old Nicholas Harriman.

The shooting took place in an upstairs bedroom, where all four victims were found in the same bed, police said. A revolver that was kept in the house and may have belonged to a long-dead relative was found near LePage’s body.

Prosecutors in New Jersey’s Burlington County said they were reviewing the case to decide whether to charge LePage if she survives her injuries.

Nine people including other school-aged children lived at the home, and use of the pillow may explain how the shooting could have occurred without being heard by members of LePage’s extended family. Police said they worked through the night to interview the other residents of the house to help rule out other scenarios.

Investigators still have not determined exactly when the shooting occurred, but said it was sometime between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. on Thursday.

The home is a large single-family residence in a wooded area of the quiet neighborhood nestled in New Jersey’s rural Pine Barrens, about 25 miles (40 km) east of Philadelphia.

Tabernacle, with a population of about 7,000 people, was ranked in 2010 by New Jersey Monthly Magazine as the sixth-best place to live in the state, according to the town’s website.