Mesquite murder suicide: Raymond Haydel Texas father shoots teen daughters, Natasha and Alexa Haydel dead before turning gun on self mystery.
A Texas father has fatally shot his two teenage daughters before turning the gun on himself in an apparent double murder-suicide according to reports.
Officers from the Mesquite Police Department responded to a home in the 1300 block of Bradford Place at around 10:25pm on Tuesday night to reports of gunshots heard.
When police arrived at the residence, they found 63-year-old Raymond Haydel lying on the floor inside the home, with a gunshot wound to his head CBSDFW reports.
As they continued their search of the property, they found the bodies of Natasha Haydel, 17, and her younger sister Alexa, 16, who both had suffered multiple gunshot wounds. They were dead at the scene, police said.
Investigators believe Haydel shot both of his children, and then committed suicide. Detectives have yet to say what motived the father.
Family separation and moving on (except for the father)
The double murder suicide follows Haydel and the girls’ mother, Michelle Chapman, 42, separating. Natasha and Alexa lived permanently with Chapman in Forney and had been visiting their father in Mesquite when the fatal incident occurred.
Haydel and Chapman filed for divorce in 2012. Chapman remarried three-years later.
The ‘incident’ led to the father of one of the girls’ boyfriends, expressing incredulity that Haydel was capable of committing such a ‘cruel act of violence’ against his own daughters.
‘We know what we need to know and sometimes things happen that you don’t want to put a reason on,’ Wes Harden told CBS DFW. ‘Of course we are angry but we know the girls would want us to celebrate their life… the outpouring of support from the kids is amazing.’
Sisters remembered
Natasha had just graduated from Forney High School just 10 days before the fatal shooting occurred. Alexa was a sophomore at the school, and both of the girls played in the school’s band FOX4 reported.
The Forney Independent School District released a statement Wednesday, mourning the sisters’ deaths.
‘Yesterday, we learned of the tragic loss of two of our Forney High School students, and our hearts are broken,’ the statement read. ‘We extend condolences to Natasha and Alexa Haydel’s family and to our Forney Family.’
A GoFundMe set up by the Hardin family to help cover funeral costs for the two girls had reached $25,165 in donations towards its $30,000 goal as of Thursday evening.