4 found shot dead in blaze

PAULS VALLEY - A man and his three children were found dead Tuesday morning inside their burned rural home west of town in what police are calling an apparent triple murder-suicide.

Statement from mother (pdf)

Jay Dee Landers, 8, Derek Landers, 5, and Katana Landers, 4, were found on a bed in the master bedroom of the home owned by their father, Jay Dee Landers Sr., 35.

“He did leave a message on his wife’s cell phone saying that he had already killed the children and was planning to kill himself,” Sheriff Bill Roady said.

The man doused the house with gasoline before setting the fire, Roady said.

The man and his wife, who was at work when the shootings took place, were having marital problems, Roady said.

All three children had been shot with a handgun at close range, but it wasn’t clear whether they were killed in the bed or moved there, said Steve Brooks, Garvin County undersheriff. Their father’s body lay nearby.

The house was in flames when firefighters arrived, said fire department spokesman Brent Thompson.

“It was on our initial search through the house that one of our firemen came upon the bodies,” Thompson said.

Trauma from gunshot wounds were worse than the burns sustained in the fire, said Robert Deaton, inspector with the state medical examiner’s office.

Neighbors said they woke Tuesday morning to what sounded like an explosion shortly after 8 a.m. They saw flames shooting out the west side of the home and called for help.

Landers had few neighbors, but one claimed to have only spoken to him once in the few years the family lived in the home. In that conversation, Landers accused the neighbor of being “nosy.”

“I could stay on my side of the road, and he could stay over there on his side and that’s just the way we lived,” said a neighbor, who did not want to be identified.

News of the children’s deaths rocked the nearby Whitebead School, where the children were students. A flag in front of the school was flown at half-staff Tuesday afternoon as Superintendent Mary Smith visited classrooms to explain why the Landers children weren’t in school.

“This is about as hard as it gets,” Smith said.

Smith said the Landers children have been at Whitebead about three years and never showed signs of any problems at home. Jay Landers had come to the school a day before to pick up his youngest son, who was ill.

She said everyone knew the Landers children as happy kids with big smiles and bright red hair. Their father recently had taken a few days leave from his job at a Wal-Mart distribution center, Smith said.

Smith said she got a call about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday that the Landers home was on fire. She called the children’s mother, Misty Landers, at work to ask if they were all right.

“I said ‘I’m on the way to your house,’” Smith said.

Jeff Hood, Misty Landers’ brother-in-law, said he had only met Jay Landers a few times.

“I always had a weird feeling about the guy,” Hood said.

Hood said the Landers family in California had heard about the children’s deaths and are coming to Oklahoma to make funeral arrangements.

The school canceled classes today and students will return Monday after their fall break. Several schools called Tuesday to offer counseling for the children.

“The children, they pick up these things very quickly,” Smith said.

One girl asked why all the teachers were sad.

Contributing: Staff Writer Julie Bisbee and The Associated Press