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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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Fla. probed man who killed daughter, 6 grandkids

The Columbian
Published:

MIAMI — Two weeks before a Florida man fatally shot his daughter and six grandchildren, someone called the state child abuse hotline, worried that adults were doing drugs in front of the kids, according to documents released Monday.

Authorities said Donald Spirit, 51, called 911 from his mobile home Thursday warning he might hurt himself or others. By the time a deputy arrived, Spirit had committed suicide. And he had killed Sarah Spirit, 28, and her six children, including an infant girl born in June.

The Department of Children and Families said it opened an investigation into Sarah Spirit on Sept. 1 after getting a tip that she or other adults in the home were smoking pot and synthetic marijuana in front of the children. Spirit told investigators she had tested positive for drugs when she was screened by her probation officers and was arrested on Aug. 26 for violating that probation.

When she got out of jail, Spirit and the children were kicked out of their home and went to live with her father. Besides the baby, the children were 11, 9, 8, 5 and 4. Four of the children were found dead about two hours after boarding the bus home from school.

Gilchrist County Sheriff Robert Schultz said their bodies were found all over the property of Don Spirit’s mobile home in Bell, a rural, north Florida community of about 500 residents.

Both father and daughter had a troubled history and were the focus of several child abuse allegations. Most involved complaints that Sarah Spirit was neglecting the children and abusing drugs, according to child welfare officials. The agency investigated a domestic incident between Sarah and the father of one of the children in 2013, but no details were given. The two men who fathered her slain children are behind bars.

One of the more troubling calls came on Aug. 27, 2008, when Sarah Spirit alerted police that her father beat her in front of her 3-year-old. She was 36 weeks pregnant at the time.

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