Neighbours Anita and her sister Alanis, along with their mother Astrid and father Robinson Pinilla, lighting candles on Dec 18, 2024, after the bodies of Bu Meh and her young children were found on Dec 17. - AP
WASHINGTON: A Utah mother who police believe was shot and killed by her husband along with three of their children was a refugee who fled violence in Myanmar and dreamed of thriving with her family in the US, relatives said on Thursday (Dec 19).
Police believe the husband killed his family before shooting himself, and a teenage son was badly wounded.
The bodies of Bu Meh, 38, along with her daughters Kristina Ree, 8, and Nyay Meh, 2, and son Boe Reh, 11, were found in their home in West Valley City, a Salt Lake City suburb, on Tuesday. A handgun was found under the father Dae Reh, 42, leading police to believe this was a murder-suicide, but no evidence of a motive has been released.
One child, 17-year-old Sha Reh, survived being shot in the head and is hospitalised with a severe brain injury, police said.
Bu Meh, a member of Myanmar's Karenni ethnic minority, fled what her relatives described as ethnic cleansing in the country about 10 years ago. She and her small family lived for a time in a refugee camp in Thailand, then came to the United States "with little more than the clothing on their backs,” the family said in a statement.
She taught herself English, learned new skills and worked hard to support her growing family, achieving a way of life "far beyond the nightmare of her former country or the refugee camp,” the family said.
"For reasons that we cannot comprehend, her husband robbed her and their children of that security and their very lives,” her family said.
Police believe the shooting happened over the weekend.
Police initially went to the home Monday night after a relative asked them to check on the family but did not find any sign of an emergency that would allow them to enter the home. The relative went to the home Tuesday, saw Sha Reh wounded in the garage and called police, who found the bodies inside the home.
In their statement, relatives called Sha Reh their hero and said he faces a "long and complex road to recovery." An online fundraiser is collecting donations to pay for his care and to help him go to college.
Neighbours hadn’t reported any gunshots in the area over the weekend, police spokesperson Roxeanne Vainuku said at a news conference Wednesday. The family had no previous reports of domestic violence or other disturbances.
This Utah case is the 38th mass killing in the United States this year. At least 165 people have died this year in US mass killings, which are defined by the FBI as cases in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the killer.
