The Berks County district attorney said Monday that 40-year-old Mark Short Sr. shot and killed his 33-year-old wife, Megan, and the couple’s three children before turning the weapon on himself.
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On Aug. 6, Short used a firearm he purchased legally to fatally shoot Megan and their children, 8-year-old Liana, 5-year-old Mark Jr. and 2-year-old Willow and the family dog. In early June, security from a Philadelphia hotel responded to a report of a domestic dispute in a room where Short and his wife had been staying. Then, the day before the killings, the DA said Mark Short took his three children to Hersheypark. Megan Short had posted comments on social media reflecing their domestic problems and her intention to move out.
Berks County District Attorney John Adams said Megan Short had already moved some of our belongings into an apartment prior to the August 6 shooting.
On Aug. 6, Mark Short was planning to help his wife move, along with her family, Adams said.
Police had been called to the home before, Adams said.
“This was a very, very unfortunate incident”, Berks County D.A. John Adams said Monday. Martin Short apparently meant to rent a moving van to help her move her belongings, as well.
Officials say in the note, Mark Short admitted to buying a gun and committing the homicide. When Megan didn’t show up for a meeting with family and couldn’t be reached that day, her mother called police.
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The family made headlines in 2014 when Willow underwent a heart transplant at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, due to a heart malformation diagnosed in utero. News stories in the New York Times and the Reading Eagle detailed the family’s difficulties obtaining medication little Willow needed to survive and grappling with the after effects of her heart transplant.
