Three Family Tragedies Leave Two States Grieving

In the space of a few weeks, three separate family tragedies have left communities in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts in mourning. Two happened in Pennsylvania this October. A third, from 2023, is still moving through a Massachusetts court. The cases are not connected.

What happened

On Oct. 12, police say Metallica Rose Harrison, 27, of Towanda, Pa., called 911 from a room at Great Wolf Lodge, a family resort in the Poconos. Her husband and their 3-year-old son were found dead from stab wounds. Harrison was hurt and taken to a hospital.

The next day she was charged with two counts of criminal homicide, meaning the unlawful killing of a person. Monroe County District Attorney Mike Mancuso called it a "violent domestic tragedy." Harrison is presumed innocent, and the charges have not been tested in court.

Three days earlier, on Oct. 9, police say Matthew Stone Sr., 45, shot and killed eight people at his home on Perry Street in Erie, Pa., then took his own life. Officers began arriving in under two minutes after a sensor detected gunfire, but police say the victims had already died.

Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said relatives described years of controlling behavior. Stone was charged in a 2019 case involving his wife, but the charges were withdrawn after she changed her statement. He had no other criminal record and was legally allowed to have the gun.

In Massachusetts, Lindsay Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, is charged with murder in the January 2023 deaths of her three young children in Duxbury. Her trial ended Sept. 4 in a mistrial, which means the jury could not agree. Eleven jurors favored acquittal, or a not-guilty verdict, and one did not.

Prosecutors say she acted deliberately. Her defense says she had postpartum psychosis, a rare and serious mental illness that can follow childbirth, and was not criminally responsible. A judge has refused to find her not guilty for lack of evidence. She is expected to stay in a psychiatric hospital until the case is settled. Her former husband has said he forgives her.

Who they were

In Erie, those lost included Stone's wife, a pregnant daughter and her unborn child, two adult sons, a 5-year-old boy, a 1-year-old girl, and two women who came to the home and were shot outside.

At Great Wolf Lodge, a father and his 3-year-old son died. The family had been staying at the resort since Sept. 21.

In Duxbury, three young children were lost.

Behind each of these losses is a person whose family and friends are now grieving.

What we don’t know yet

Police do not know why the Great Wolf Lodge deaths happened. They searched the family's Towanda home on Oct. 14 looking for answers. Harrison's plea and lawyer were not listed in court records reviewed by reporters.

The reason for the Erie shooting is also unknown. Relatives described suspected methamphetamine use (a powerful illegal drug) and mental-health concerns, but police found no record of mental-health history. District Attorney Elizabeth Hirz urged the public not to guess. Reports differ on the pregnant daughter's age (21 or 24) and on whether the two women outside were friends, neighbors or relatives.

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz has not decided whether to try Clancy again, seek lesser charges or drop the case. Her lawyers plan to argue next month that a new trial would break the rule against double jeopardy, which says a person cannot be tried twice for the same crime. Prosecutors strongly dispute the defense's claim that the evidence did not prove she did it.

Researchers who study domestic violence say family killings are very rare. They point to warning signs such as past abuse, access to guns and threats of suicide, and say such killings can be prevented. A gun-rights column in September questioned blaming guns for these killings. The reporting reviewed shows no measured rise in such cases in 2026.

What families must hold onto

God gave His people a simple plan for the home: "These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts. And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up" (Deuteronomy 6:6–7). His truth is meant for the kitchen table, the car ride and bedtime, not just Sunday. Parents go first by living it. "Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life" (Proverbs 4:23).

Talk honestly about anger, envy, control and despair before they grow. Name them out loud and bring them to God together. Take warning signs seriously, such as threats, controlling behavior, talk of suicide, or a new mom who seems not herself after birth. Getting help early from a doctor, counselor, pastor or police is not a lack of faith. It is love. If you or someone you know is in crisis in the U.S., you can call or text 988, and if anyone is in immediate danger, call 911.

No family is meant to carry this alone. The church is God's household, a place where people notice, ask kind questions and step in.

• Read a short passage of Scripture together this week and talk about it.
• Ask someone you love, "How are you really doing?" and listen.
• If something feels wrong at home, tell a trusted person today.

A warning to every family

The worst darkness often grows quietly inside the walls of a home. In Erie, police say relatives described years of controlling behavior. Researchers point to past abuse, access to guns and threats of suicide as warning signs, and they say such killings can be prevented. Mental illness is real suffering caused by a fallen humanity, and it needs real care. This tragedy reminds us that no home is safe just because it is a family. Jeremiah warned people who forsook "the fountain of living water" for "broken cisterns that cannot hold water" (Jeremiah 2:13). Every heart, including ours, needs the living God.

Where evil begins

When we make ourselves god

The book of Judges ends with a sad summary: "everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25). Paul describes the same pattern: "although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts" (Romans 1:21). "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator" (Romans 1:25).

Evil did not start in Erie, the Poconos or Duxbury. It started in a garden. The serpent told Eve, "You will surely not die... For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:4–5). The first lie was not mainly about fruit. It was about who gets to be God.

One chapter later, the first family suffers the first murder. Cain grows angry and envious when God accepts his brother Abel's offering. God warns him personally: "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you refuse to do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires you, but you must master it" (Genesis 4:7). Cain refused. He killed his brother in a field, and God said, "The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground" (Genesis 4:10).

Notice that the warning came first. Sin is pictured like an animal waiting at the door of the heart. Anger, envy and a desire to control were already there before Cain ever lifted his hand.

James shows where that road leads: "each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death" (James 1:14–15). When we decide good and evil for ourselves, and treat other people as things we own or control, the end is ruin. That is true in every heart, not just in the hearts we read about in the news.

Hope in Christ

God sees. He saw Abel's blood in the field, and He sees every life lost in Erie, at Great Wolf Lodge and in Duxbury, including the unborn child. Hagar once called Him "the God who sees me" (Genesis 16:13). No victim is forgotten by Him, and no grieving family weeps unnoticed. "The LORD is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit" (Psalm 34:18).

Justice belongs to Him. Courts and investigators have real and needed work to do, and we pray they do it well. But we are not left to settle every score or answer every question ourselves. "Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God's wrath. For it is written: 'Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord'" (Romans 12:19). Some answers may never come in this life. God will still judge rightly.

The cross answers both the world's evil and our own guilt. Abel's blood cried out from the ground for justice. But Hebrews says we have come "to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel" (Hebrews 12:24). At the cross, evil was judged and mercy was offered to all who turn to Him, even those who feel too far gone.

And this is not the end of the story. "Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Philippians 3:20). One day "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain" (Revelation 21:4). Until then, we grieve with hope.

Key passages: Genesis 4:1–16 · Jeremiah 2:13 · Deuteronomy 6:4–9 · Psalm 34:18 · Hebrews 12:22–24 · Revelation 21:3–5

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