An Oregon woman killed with her four children in a rampage of arson and stabbings linked to her husband was long aware he was a convicted child molester but never expressed any fear of him, her brother said on Thursday.
Tabasha Paige-Criado, 30, was pulled from the family's burning home in Medford, Oregon, last Monday along with her three sons, aged 5, 6 and 7, and a 2-year-old daughter. All five were pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Her 51-year-old spouse, Jordan Criado, was found injured and unconscious in the house from smoke inhalation. Hospitalized in custody, he is the only individual police have named as a "person of interest" in the killings, though he remains in a medically induced coma.
His brother-in-law, Jesse Adams, told reporters during a tearful news conference on Thursday that his sister was unhappy in her marriage.
"We knew she wanted a divorce," he said, adding that "she obviously didn't see anything coming or feel threatened."
Medford police recently confirmed that Criado at one point had served prison time in California for child molestation.
Adams said that his sister knew of Criado's past when she married him. "He served his debt to society, and it has no bearing on what happened now," he said.
Preliminary autopsy results released on Thursday indicate that the mother died of multiple stab wounds to the neck and abdomen. Carbon monoxide poisoning contributed to the deaths of all four children, officials said, but two of the boys also were stabbed in the neck.
Investigators combing through the charred home discovered the fire had been deliberately set in multiple locations.
In another bizarre twist to the case, police said the husband had reported his wife missing four hours before the fire, but police found her safe nearby and brought her back home. Officials said she did not seem fearful or agitated at the time.
The killings unnerved many residents in Medford, a western Oregon city of 75,000 people about 275 miles south of Portland, they said.
