A dad, mum and 12-year-old son have been found shot dead in their home, police have confirmed.
The bodies were found in their family home in Andover, Massachusetts, US, on early Thursday morning.
Emergency services were called to the scene just after 3.21am and had to breach two doors to get into the house.
Andover Police Chief Pat Keefe told reporters: "They found the father, mother and a 12-year-old son dead. Wounds were from a gunshot."
The names of the three have not yet been released but police did say the dad was 56 years old and the mum was 55.
Keefe continued: "We know the how, we're trying to figure out the why right now."
According to the Essex District Attorney Paul Tucker, the scene is "contained" and there is no wider danger to the public.
Tucker also took a moment to call on people suffering with mental health to get help.
He said: “It’s a good time to remind folks if they are suffering any type of mental health issues, any type of depression, there are services out there."
The school where the boy studied, St. John's, has been informed about his death and classes were cancelled for the day.
Police have not yet released information about who the shooter was or who called 911 from the home.
This latest scene is just 60 miles from where a mum has been accused of strangling her three children to death.
Lindsay Clancy, 32, from Massachusetts, US, "heard voices in her head" before her attempted murder-suicide.
She appeared at Plymouth District Court via Zoom from her hospital bed in a mask and neck brace to hear the charges against her yesterday.
The nurse faces three counts of murder and three counts each of strangulation, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Prosecutors allege she strangled her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months at their home on January 24 before jumping 20ft from the couple's second-floor window.
She has been left unable to walk following the fall.
Her lawyer, Kevin Reddington, said she was a victim of a medical care that fails mums with “postpartum depression – and even postpartum psychosis.”
He said Mrs Clancy was prescribed drugs, such as Prozac and Seroquel, which are said to include suicidal thoughts as a side effect.
“[Clancy] was … a beautiful person who was destroyed by this medication,” Mr Reddington told the court.
