See Update No. 4 on Page 2 with deputies identifying all of the deceased and disclosing Michael Sheer, 21, is believed to have killed his father, mother and sister before turning his shotgun on himself. Update Nos. 1-3 on the next page identified the parents and confirmed no suspect was being sought.
ORIGINAL POST, MAY 27, 11:07 A.M.: Details are sketchy right now, but the Orange County Sheriff's Department says four bodies were found in a home in the 25600 block of Pacific Hills Drive in Mission Viejo this morning.
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Deputies got the call around 9 a.m., according to the agency.
Check back for updates to this post.
UPDATE NO. 1, MAY 27, 2 P.M.: Sheriff's investigators are not looking for a suspect and see no threat to the 25600 block of Pacific Hills Drive in Mission Viejo after a preliminary investigation, according to an agency spokesman.
The disclosure from Lt. Jeff Hallock, who described the bodies found in the home as belonging to two males and two females, could indicate this is being probed as a murder-suicide case at this point.
Neighbors at the scene have said a father, mother, son in his 20s and daughter in her teens resided in the hillside home.
UPDATE NO. 2, MAY 27, 5:37 P.M.: The Orange County Sheriff's Department's investigators believe murder-suicide was the cause of four deaths in a Mission Viejo home, according to spokesman Lt. Jeff Hallock.
The agency also believes they have identified the dead but are awaiting final confirmation, Hallock added.
Neighbors told television reporters the family who lived in the home seemed happy and churchgoing.
UPDATE NO. 3, MAY 28, 8:36 A.M.: The pastor at Mount of Olives Lutheran Church, the family's Mission Viejo place of worship, has identified mother and father Mark and Lydia Sheer as the deceased parents in the murder-suicide discovered Tuesday morning in their hillside home.
Their son in his 20s and daughter in her late teens are the other victims, sheriff's deputies confirmed.
Mark Sheer was a business consultant.
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A website called NewsBall.com posted the video above that includes Mark Sheer speaking about investments, after images taken outside his crime-scene home. He, his wife and his daughter are presumed to have been shot to death by his son.
UPDATE NO. 4, MAY 29, 12:11 P.M.: Michael Harrison Davis Sheer, 21, is believed to have fatally shot his father, mother and sister before turning a shotgun on himself, according to a statement just released by the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
Spokesman Lt. Jeff Hallock also released the full names of the murder victims: Mark Harrison Sheer, 55; Lydia Ann Sheer, 54; and Amy Joanne Sheer, 15, all of whom resided with the presumed gunman in the hillside home at 25601 Pacific Hills Road, Mission Viejo.
Hallock's statement fills in some holes:
In the early morning hours of Monday, May 26, 2014, sheriff's deputies responded to reports of possible gun shots and a male yelling in the area near Pacific Hills Road, Mission Viejo. Deputies patrolled the area for several minutes but were unable to locate anything to substantiate the report. Following the preliminary death investigation by the Coroner Division, this report appears consistent with the estimated time of death; however, autopsies are still pending.
On Tuesday, May 27, 2014, sheriff's deputies responded to 25601 Pacific Hills Road at the request of a relative who located the deceased. An investigation immediately ensued in an attempt to gather information and evidence from inside the residence. Based on the preliminary investigation and evidence located inside the residence, Michael Sheer, 21, is suspected of shooting his father, mother and sister with a shotgun before turning the gun on himself.
No motive has been determined and no further information regarding the investigation or evidence located at the scene will be released at this time, Hallock adds. It's not known who the shotgun belonged to.
Anyone with additional information that may assist in the investigation is asked to call the Orange County Sheriff's Department Homicide Unit at 714.647.7055. Anonymous tips may be submitted to Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855.TIP.OCCS (855.847.6227) or via occrimestoppers.org.
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.