Cases in which one person kills multiple members of their own family are very rare, but experts say the pattern is familiar enough to look for warning signs now. Dr. Jacquelyn Campbell described the crime some people call familicide as an extreme form of family annihilation, and said the Muscatine tragedy fits the kind of case researchers have studied for years.

Campbell said research has found a common thread: prior domestic violence against the wife. She said these killings are almost always carried out with guns, and that a prior threat of suicide is another pattern that shows up often in family homicide-suicide cases. That is why the violence can look sudden from the outside even when danger has been building for some time.

That pattern matters because the public often expects these cases to come out of nowhere. Campbell said, “Fortunately, it’s very rare and I can’t give you exact numbers on these,” but rarity does not mean randomness. In the cases she has studied, the violence often comes after a period in which a woman is trying to leave an abusive relationship, and the abuse itself can be the warning that the situation has become dangerous.

Nicole Cisne Durbin said the damage does not end when the violence stops. She said continued support can make a difference for people experiencing domestic violence, and that Family Resources offers help without telling people what to do. Instead, she said, staff work with people to understand what they need to feel safe. Durbin added that the effects of a tragedy like this can last for years, not weeks.

“If you keep asking and showing up and not giving up on them and offering them support, that’s what’s really, really important,” Durbin said. She said the need for help may stretch on long after the immediate shock fades, especially for people trying to rebuild safety after family violence.

For people looking for support now, Family Resources, local school counselors and the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline are among the options mentioned in the wake of the Muscatine tragedy. The unanswered question is whether any of the warning signs experts described were present in that case, because that is often the difference between a tragedy that seems incomprehensible and one that might have been recognized sooner.