Why were three family members, including a 6-year-old daughter, killed at an eastern Iowa state park campground is the key question at the centre of the investigation.
As they search for any connections between the family and the alleged gunman, authorities haven’t been able to provide an answer to this query thus far.
Noting that they have not found any connections between Anthony Sherwin and the family members he is accused of killing, they have not found much to provide a motive.
Police have stated that Sherwin, 23, of La Vista, an Omaha suburb, had no prior criminal history and that it appeared that he chose his victims at random.
reported that Sherwin was discovered dead west of the park from what seemed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Astonishment was shown by the man’s parents, who had been camping with their son, that he would commit such an atrocity.
At the Maquoketa Caves State Park Campground, roughly 180 miles east of Des Moines, the victims from Cedar Falls, Iowa, were discovered shot to death in their tent early on Friday morning.
According to the police, the attack claimed the lives of Tyler Schmidt, 42, his 42-year-old wife Sarah Schmidt, and their 6-year-old daughter Lula Schmidt.
Arlo, the couple’s 9-year-old son, was unharmed and survived the shooting, but police have not said whether he was inside the tent at the time.
The boy was interviewed by detectives, according to Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, on Monday, but he would not say what the boy said.
According to Mortvedt, “at this point, nothing has been discovered as far as anything that could have caused the attack” at the campground.
Sherwin’s parents speculated that he might have heard the gunfire and reached for a weapon in the family car to defend himself, but Mortvedt ruled that out.
Without going into specifics, Mortvedt added, “we are certain that all we have documented is how it played out and that he is accountable.
With everything we have learned.
According to Mortvet, autopsies on the Schmidts and Sherwin started on Sunday and were still ongoing on Monday.
When Sherwin walked into a police station in July 2017 to report someone had tried to use his insurance to get dental work done in Oklahoma, the La Vista Police Department in Nebraska only had one prior contact with him, according to records made public on Monday.
Later, Sherwin called the police to let them know that his insurance company had sent him someone else’s bill by error.
Sherwin’s mother, Cecilia Sherwin, characterised her son as compassionate, sensitive, an amazing student, and an aspiring businessman in a statement emailed to The Associated Press.
We’ve just gotten home, and it’s hard to comprehend that we lost our son and are doing this without him, she added.
I didn’t believe we had any more tears in us, but we can’t stop crying because we care so much about the young child and the death of his family.