A Virginia man along with his wife and their two daughters died from gunshot wounds to the head in which it has been described as a murder-suicide.

The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office said that 35 years old Lance Calvin Buckley; 30 years old Amy Buckley; 5 years old Claire Buckley; and 17 months old Abigail Buckley had been found dead in their Stafford County home last week.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner had released the cause of death to local news organizations on Monday.

The sheriff’s office stated that a man who had identified himself as Lance Buckley called 911 on Thursday morning and said that he wanted to report three murders and a suicide.

The sheriff’s officer had informed that when the deputies arrived at the scene they had found the four bodies in the lower level of the home.

Buckley had been the subject of a bizarre missing person case last year that drew national headlines. The Howard doctoral student vanished on his way to the Washington, D.C. school shortly before his graduation. He had been found safe days later at a campground near Maryland’s border with West Virginia, miles from his home.

Family had pleaded several times for his return.  Amy Buckley , his wife told tearfully, holding her then-newborn “I just want you home, I love you. You’re the love of my life.”

By Prakriti Neogi