The Alarcon family appears inset, on the left, against an image of their home of 15 years in Union, N.J. (Obituary; Google Maps)
New Jersey sheriff’s deputies serving an eviction notice on a family of four found their work transmogrified into a grim and gruesome commentary on the nature of precarity when every member of the family was discovered dead — shot and killed in a triple murder-suicide .
Ruben Alarcon, 51, Andrea Alarcon, 42, Scarlett Alarcon, 9, and Emma Alarcon, 6, were found at their home on Lincrest Terrace by members of the Union County Sheriff’s Department on the morning of Jan. 17. Each family member died from a fatal gunshot wound, according to a press release issued by the Union County Prosecutor’s Office.
Law enforcement only released the names of the adults who died. The full names of the family were mentioned in their online obituary .
“In tragedies of this magnitude, there are no words that can heal, nor explanations that can serve to make sense of them to the public,” Union County Prosecutor William Daniel said in a statement. “Our thoughts go out to the family and friends of these victims and to the Union community as a whole in the wake of this horrible event.”