Autopsy: Man found dead in Cottage Grove shot self in head
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An autopsy Thursday showed a gunshot to the head killed a man at the center of an Oregon murder-suicide investigation, and the medical examiner said it was consistent with a self-inflicted wound.
The man's body was found Tuesday in a car 80 miles south of a burned house in Salem where his wife and three children were found dead. Authorities said the wife and two children had been shot, and an infant asphyxiated.
Authorities haven't released the man's name, but family members and officials from a church attended by the family have identified him as Nikolay Lazukin to The Associated Press and other media.
Deputy State Medical Examiner Larry Lewman said that was the name associated with the body when it arrived at his office.
Lewman wouldn't call the death a suicide, saying that determination is up to police, who didn't immediately return calls seeking further information.
Firefighters who entered the burning home discovered the bodies of infant Sefi Lazukin, 1-year-old Zoe Lazukin, 3-year-old Angelica Lazukin and the children's 26-year-old mother, Natalya Lazukin.
More than 100 people gathered for a memorial service outside the home Wednesday night,
A youth group from the Slavic Christian Church in Salem, where the family worshipped, tied balloons to a fence, and the crowd sang "Amazing Grace" in Russian.
"They were all wonderful," said Irina Thompson, a relative of Nikolay Lazukin by marriage. "Nick was so good with the kids. I can't understand why this would happen, but sometimes people change."
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press
