CANDO, ND – The discovery of four bodies in a wheat field has spurred a triple murder-suicide investigation in a rural North Dakota community, officials say.
A husband and father of two girls, Doug Dulmage, was shot and killed Monday evening while combining wheat.
Three of his farm hands were also found shot to death about a third of a mile across the field.
The workers are related to each other, but police have not identified them. Towner County Sheriff Andrew Hillier said Tuesday the four individuals are adults and lived in the area. He declined to release the gender, relationship or identities of those who died or the circumstances surrounding the shootings
Hillier said in a news release that deputies found the bodies Monday after someone alerted authorities to four people who were unresponsive. Deputies secured the scene with the help of the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation and other law enforcement agencies.
While Hillier did not identify a possible motive, evidence found at the scene suggests the killings were a murder-suicide, he said in the release.
According to Valley News Live, several people and family members say there was a dispute which ended in one man killing his brother, his son and Dulmage before turning the gun on himself. The three men are reported to be hired help for Dulmage.
The Forum News Service of Fargo reported that farm equipment at the scene Tuesday was riddled with gunfire.
Investigators aren’t disclosing any information at this time, and, won’t comment on who pulled the trigger. A gun was found with one of the bodies, Hillier said.
Law enforcement are waiting for autopsy results.
Cando is 118 miles west of Grand Forks and 40 miles south of the Canadian border.
