When people experience the unexpected death of a friend, neighbor, or family member, it’s natural to search for answers. And sometimes the answers aren’t very satisfying.

Such has been the case for friends and neighbors of the Daub family. On January 25th, police responded to their home for a wellness check and discovered the bodies of Morgan Daub, 26, and her parents, 59-year-old Deborah and 62-year-old James, all dead from gunshot wounds.

Evidence at the scene included handwritten notes by all three individuals. These convinced lead detective Timothy Fink that the daughter’s struggles with mental illness led her to take her life, and the parents joined her in a suicide pact because they didn’t want to live without her.

Detective Fink said, “Deborah wrote that she didn’t want her daughter to pass on alone, so she had decided to end her life with her. The letter written by James indicated that they had told him their plan, and he decided that he didn’t want to live without them.”

Members of the surrounding community were shocked by the discovery. One neighbor told reporters that the family had grown isolated over the years, and had withdrawn altogether during the COVID-19 pandemic. Another neighbor across the street, Mike Landis, had pleasant memories of the Daubs, claiming that the couple had been traveling missionaries, and had offered spiritual counseling during a health crisis.

The news was especially shocking for Paula Wolfe, who was a youth coordinator at the local bowling alley where Morgan excelled as a teenager. Wolfe said, “Everybody’s just really sad about it, and just doesn’t know what to make of it. I don’t know that you could ever imagine this. But, yeah, a family that you’d never ever think that anything like this would happen.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Being isolated, in pain, and cut off from community can distort one’s thinking and warp perception. Someone who feels hopeless and isolated is in danger of hurting themselves and others.