A grandfather struggling to come to grips with the devastating loss of his daughter and six grandchildren in what authorities believe was a horrific murder-suicide says he still loves the killer.
“I love my daughter Mandy, and I loved those six children,” Gary Anderson, 78, told The Detroit News. “In a way, I still love Kris.”
Kristopher Karolkiewicz, 47, last week fatally shot his 37-year-old wife, Amanda, and their children, ages 5 to 15, before setting fire to their Michigan home and then turning a semi-automatic handgun on himself. The couple and the children were found in their respective bedrooms.
Three dogs and a cat were found dead outside from fire- or smoke-related injuries.
A person’s legacy “shouldn’t be the worst thing they did on the worst day of their life,” Anderson told the newspaper. He said throughout the time he knew his son-in-law, he was a “good father and a good husband.”
Still, he admitted, he struggles to “understand the why.”
Authorities found the bodies when they responded to the blaze Karolkiewicz had set at the family home in Grand Haven Township, on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.
Investigators believe Karolkiewicz killed his wife before shooting dead each of the children.
“This is an unspeakable tragedy that we may never completely understand,” Sheriff Eric DeBoer said in a statement after the crime.
Karolkiewicz had recently lost his job with the American Heart Association.
His wife, a substitute teacher, had discussed struggles in their marriage and raising six children on social media, noting she was “stretched too thin.” She reportedly accused her husband of having an “emotional affair” with a younger woman. She had recently returned from a trip with her adopted 11-year-old daughters to their home country of China.
“Our daughter Mandy was a kind and devoted soul who loved her family and her students,” Amanda’s mother, Becky Lawwill, said in an earlier statement.
“We treasured every moment we had with her and her six children, and words cannot adequately express our devastation. We pray for God’s peace and comfort as we grieve their deaths and honor their lives.”
