Four Dead In Upscale Slaughter

"SAN CLEMENTE, CA - Two young sisters, their mother and another women - all of them related - were killed in an upscale gated community in San Clemente as a result of a murder-suicide stemming from a custody dispute, authorities said Tuesday.

"The victims of Monday's slayings were 2- and 4-year-old sisters, their 37-year-old mother and another woman whose status in the family was being withheld pending family notification, said Orange County Sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino.

"He said the killer was one of the four dead.

"Their names were not released.

"Amormino said the girls' father was in another Orange County community when the tragedy occurred.

"He said the motive behind the murder-suicide appears to have been a child-custody dispute between the girls' mother and father, exacerbated by a custody hearing prior to the deaths.

"The four dead were discovered inside the rented home on Calle Sonador in the exclusive Careyes community just before 2 p.m. Monday, Amormino said, adding that no one else was on the property at the time.

"`It started out as a domestic disturbance about 1:30 p.m. (Monday),` Orange County Sheriff's Lt. Tom Slayton said Monday.

"The disturbance was reported by the man who owns the home and who heard noises, Amormino said. `He knew something was wrong,` he said.

"The Careyes community is `a private, gated enclave of only 42 luxury executive residences overlooking the Talega golf course,` according to a Talega Community Web site. Four- to six-bedroom homes in the neighborhood sell for more than $1 million."

From the Contra Costa Times...

UPDATE: "It's something out of Greek tragedy."