VANCOUVER, Wash. — The Clark County Sheriff's Office has released the names of the five people who died in an apparent murder-suicide in the Orchards neighborhood just outside Vancouver on Sunday. The four victims had previously been identified as the wife, brother and two adult daughters of the suspect, but their names had been withheld.
The suspect is identified as 64-year-old Stuart K. Rouse. The names and ages of the victims are as follows:
- Cristina S. Rouse, 62
- Ronald E. Rouse, 57
- Kristina T. Rouse, 33
- Melissa A. Rouse, 19
The victims still need to be officially identified by the Clark County Medical Examiner's Office, but the sheriff's office said in a news release Thursday that it was opting to "tentatively identify" the suspect and victims, noting that multiple reports with their names are already circulating. The news release did not include any new details about the circumstances of the apparent murder-suicide.
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to support other members of the Rouse family. The campaign was created by the wife of a son of Stuart Rouse.
Deputies were called to a home on Northeast 92nd Street in Orchards just after 1 p.m. Sunday for a welfare check, according to an initial news release from the sheriff's office. A SWAT team was also called in, and law enforcement spent several hours outside the house urging the people inside to come out, before sending in a drone which saw several people who appeared to be deceased.
The initial welfare check was prompted by a relative of the family in the Seattle area who contacted police after receiving a text message from a family member stating they had harmed others at the residence. However, the sheriff's office subsequently stated that the relative did not see the message and contact police until several hours after it was sent, so the deputies who arrived outside the house suspected that the victims were already dead at the time.
Without any obvious signs of immediate distress coming from the house, and with reports from family members that firearms could be involved in the incident, the sheriff's office said the deputies had to wait for a search warrant and SWAT team support to enter.
