UPDATE: Police release details of five people found dead in Minnesota home

April 22, 2022

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — A man killed his aunt and uncle, two young cousins and their dog while they slept, then later killed himself at their Minnesota home after posting on Facebook that he had made “the absolutely horrid choice” to do so, police said Thursday.

Duluth Police Chief Mike Tusken said at a news conference that Brandon Taylor Cole-Skogstad, 29, killed his relatives in their beds sometime Tuesday night, then shot himself as police knocked on the door around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Cole-Skogstad made his Facebook post about an hour earlier, saying he had “suffered many years of mental illness” but that he “almost never sought out help because I felt I never deserved it.” Tusken confirmed the authenticity of the post.

Officers went to check on Cole-Skogstad late Wednesday morning at his home in Hermantown after a family member received a message from him saying he intended to harm himself and other family members, Tusken said. Hermantown police then asked Tusken’s department to check on his relatives in nearby Duluth.

Tusken identified the victims as Riana Lou Barry, 44; Sean Christopher Barry, 47; Shiway Elizabeth Barry, 12; and Sadie Lucille Barry, 9. He said they had been shot, and that, police found a 9 mm handgun near Cole-Skogstad’s body.

“It is a terribly traumatic event. … We all have really heavy hearts,” Tusken said.

Police used a drone and robot to investigate before tactical officers entered the home at 3 p.m., about 2 1/2 hours after hearing the shot.

Cole-Skogstad had stayed at the family’s home previously, the chief said, but he offered no information on what precipitated the killings.