US:Father shot dead his two beautiful daughters before killing self

A Texas father fatally shot his two teenage daughters before turning the gun on himself in an apparent double murder-suicide, authorities have said.

Officers from the Mesquite Police Department responded to a home in the 1300 block of Bradford Place at around 10:25pm on Tuesday night to reports of gunshots heard.

When police arrived at the residence, they found 63-year-old Raymond Haydel lying on the floor inside the home, with a gunshot wound to his head.

As they continued their search of the property, they found the bodies of Natasha Haydel, 17, and her younger sister Alexa, 16, who both had suffered multiple gunshot wounds. They were dead at the scene, police said.

Investigators believe Haydel shot both of his children, and then committed suicide. Detectives are still working to establish a motive for the double murder-suicide.

Police say it appears Haydel and the girls’ mother, Michelle Chapman, 42, were no longer together. Natasha and Alexa lived permanently with Chapman in Forney and had been visiting their father in Mesquite when the fatal incident occurred.

Legal documents show that Haydel and Chapman filed for divorce in 2012. Chapman remarried three-years later.

Wes Hardin, who is the father of one of the girls’ boyfriends, voiced his shock that Haydel was capable of committing such a cruel act of violence against his own daughters.

‘We know what we need to know and sometimes things happen that you don’t want to put a reason on,’ Harden told CBS DFW. ‘Of course we are angry but we know the girls would want us to celebrate their life… the outpouring of support from the kids is amazing.’

Darion and Lindsay Daily, who live two doors down from the scene of the shooting, told FOX4 how they watched through the night as investigators processed the crime scene.

‘Yesterday, we learned of the tragic loss of two of our Forney High School students, and our hearts are broken,’ the statement said. ‘We extend condolences to Natasha and Alexa Haydel’s family and to our Forney Family.’

Tributes to the two girls have flooded onto social media, remembering them both as ‘Bright, beautiful and talented’.

‘I am truly heartbroken by this loss,’ Sheri Jones wrote on Facebook. ‘Natasha was one of the student aides that I got to work with…Her creative nature inspired many story times. And her ideas brighten the days of so many little ones. The world lost two beautiful souls.’