PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An autopsy shows a gunshot to the head killed a man at the center of an Oregon murder-suicide case, and the medical examiner says it was consistent with a self-inflicted wound.
The man’s wife and three children were found Tuesday morning in a burning house in Salem, the wife and two children shot, an infant apparently asphyxiated.
His body was found later in a car 80 miles away.
Authorities haven’t released the man’s name, but people close to the family have identified him as Nikolay Lazukin.
Deputy State Medical Examiner Larry Lewman said Thursday that was the name associated with the body when it arrived at his office.
Lewman wouldn’t call the death a suicide, saying that determination is up to the police, who didn’t return calls Thursday afternoon.
