2 children, 2 adults dead after apparent murder-suicide in La Junta

LA JUNTA, Colo. (KRDO) - The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is now assisting the La Junta Police Department (LJPD) with an apparent murder-suicide that occurred in the late hours of June 11, 2024.

The CBI says that La Junta police officers were called to a home at 11:30 p.m. in the 1100 block of Smithland Avenue in La Junta. Two adults and two children were found shot in the residence. Three people, two adults, and one child, were pronounced deceased at the scene.

According to the CBI, a second child was transported to a Denver-area hospital and was later pronounced dead.

The CBI says that information is very preliminary, with few details available at this time.

However, a neighbor who declined to be interviewed says that she believes the deceased include a mother, her two young children and the mother's ex-boyfriend.

"She worked at Sonic ," the neighbor says. "Why would anyone do something like this -- especially to the children? I think they were four years old and two years old."

The tragedy was especially hard emotionally for Laura Homan; she learned of it while awaiting news about her 19-year-old son, who disappeared overnight in the high, powerful current of the Arkansas River.

"We lived in the same neighborhood and she knew my kids," Homan reflects. "I hadn't seen her for a few years. She was really bubbly and friendly... smiling. She was a nice person."

Anyone with information is asked to call the La Junta Police Department at (719) 384-2525.

The CBI says that the initial information indicates this was not a random incident, and that the deceased were known to one another.

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