Unemployed children's author who fatally shot wife, 3 children before killing himself had said he was 'going crazy'
The father of a family that was found shot to death inside their home in Massachusetts has been identified as a struggling children's author who said that he was "unemployed and going crazy".
Joseph Zaccardi, 43, was found dead on Monday, along with his wife Deirdre Zaccardi, 40, and three children. The case is being treated as a suspected murder-suicide.
The tragedy was discovered after a relative visited the family's condo in Abington, a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, to take the children to school at around 7:30 am on Monday, October 7, and found Deirdre unresponsive and bleeding on a couch downstairs, according to The Patriot Ledger.
Their children, 11-year-old Alexis, and 9-year-old twins Nathaniel and Kathryn, were reportedly found with their father at another location inside the home.
Zaccardi, a graduate from the University of Massachusetts, hawked his published books on Facebook, where he listed his employment status as "Unemployed and Going Crazy."
The 43-year-old, in a post in 2017, wrote: "I am proud to announce that my third children’s book, All Mixed Up, has been published and is now available to purchase on Amazon. Purchasing a copy will obviously help to promote the book, but simply spreading the word about its release would be extremely helpful too!"
His wife, Deidre, had commented on the post, writing: "I'm so proud of you!"
The victims’ relatives released a statement after the killings, calling the slayings “an unfathomable loss." They asked for privacy as they "attempt to make sense of the enormity of this event.”
Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz released a statement on the tragedy, saying: "It's a crime, a crime occurred in that building. Three little children are gone forever." He also noted that they died of gunshot wounds. He added that there was no known history of “any ongoing domestic issues” between the parents and there's "not a lot of answers to a heck of a lot of questions" at this time.
There were reportedly no other people in the condo unit. Details about how and the order in which the victims were killed are still unclear.