Cimarron Yancy Wolfe, 38, shot two kids dead before killing himself, cops say
Two children have been killed in an apparent murder-suicide perpetrated by a career criminal who was father to one of them.
Cimarron Yancy Wolfe, 38, was found dead of a gunshot wound on Thursday outside Houston alongside the bodies of his daughter Sarah Wolfe, eight, and her half-brother Phillip Bernal, 12.
Wolfe was the father of Sarah and was possibly the stepfather of Phillip, though his relationship to the boy is not entirely clear.
‘It appears to be a situation of family violence where the adult male is the paternal father of one of the children,’ Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at a press conference, ABC13 reported.
The children were abducted from this home in Jacinto City, Texas on Thursday afternoon while their grandmother ran an errand and left them napping at home
Friends and family collapsed in grief at the news that the young children had been killed
‘It is definitely a dark day here in Harris County. Another situation of family violence. This happens way too often and it is very sad and unfortunate that we see situations like this occur,’ Gonzalez said.
Investigators said that Sarah and Phillip were taking a nap at their grandmother’s house on Thursday when she left the house to run an errand at around 12.15pm.
Wolfe gained access to the house and abducted the children sometime before 1pm, cops believe.
There were no signs of forced entry to the home, on the 11000 block of Verano Street in Jacinto City, Texas, on the eastern outskirts of Houston.
Someone reported the children missing, and cops were searching for them when another call came in reporting the discovery of dead bodies about eight miles away, at a residence on the 14000 block of Edgeboro Street.
Wolfe, Sarah and Phillip were all found dead of gunshot wounds. Preliminary evidence indicates that Wolfe was the shooter, police said.
An investigation is ongoing to determine a possible motive.
Wolfe is a career criminal with a rap sheet stretching back to 1997. His prior convictions include weapons charges, burglary and evading arrest, court records show.
At the time of the shooting, Wolfe had a warrant out for his arrest on a misdemeanor theft case from 2017.