Firefighters discovered the victims inside a Grand Haven Township home after responding to reports of smoke; investigators said at least some had been shot

By John Agar
mlive.com

GRAND HAVEN TOWNSHIP, Mich. – When firefighters went into the house, smoke was coming from a front window.

However, until firefighters started walking out, no one imagined the nightmare inside.

“I knew something was wrong,” a neighbor said. “I could see it in their faces. I could see they saw something bad.”

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A family – two adults and six children, ages 5 to 15 – was found dead inside the house in a quiet, wooded neighborhood near the Grand River’s Millhouse Bayou.

At least some of the victims had been shot, Ottawa County sheriff’s Capt. Jacob Sparks said.

Their names have not been released pending positive identifications.

Grand Haven Township firefighters responded around 8:30 a.m. for a report of the odor of smoke in the area. Firefighters searched the neighborhood but could not find the fire.

At 11:42 a.m., firefighters and sheriff’s deputies returned after 911 calls reporting white smoke coming from a house in the 14900 block of Riverside Trail. The neighbor, who didn’t want to be identified, said he believed the heat from the fire finally broke through the front window.

He said he was out that morning by the house but did not notice anything wrong. He detected a slight odor of smoke but it could have been anything, he said.

He was stunned when he heard the family was inside, deceased. He did not know what happened.

“You never know what’s going on (in others’ lives). You just don’t.”

Just down the street, Scott Fischer, 57, said, “To say shocked, it’s an understatement.”

He listened to Sparks’ press conference and thought he heard the captain say some of the victims had been shot. He had to ask a neighbor to confirm what he heard.

Fischer and his wife moved to the neighborhood from Grosse Pointe Woods on the east side of the state in 2017.

The family that died had lived there five or six years. He didn’t know them well but would wave and saw the kids playing outside.

“This is a community, or, I should say a neighborhood, which I think I was very lucky to find,” Fischer said.

There are families with young children, couples with older kids and seniors. He knows tragedies can happen anywhere but it’s still too much to comprehend.

“It’s really a good neighborhood. It’s quiet, you see people walking their dogs, people holding hands, riding bikes, and then this.”

He was stunned by the scale of what had happened inside. The house had plywood over the front window but showed no signs of an extensive fire from the outside.

He and his wife left that morning around 8 a.m. but noticed nothing unusual. When they returned, there was “nothing but emergency vehicles. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

He wished he had gotten to know the parents better. Everyone seems so busy with their own lives. He didn’t know what anyone could have done to prevent the tragedy.

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