Police are investigating what they believe was a murder-suicide involving a husband, his wife, a teenager, and two additional minors in High Point, North Carolina. On Monday, authorities confirmed the identities of the family of five who were found dead inside their home this past weekend.
Investigators determined that Robert J. Crayton, Jr., 45, shot and killed his wife, Athalia Crayton, 46, their adult child, Kasin Crayton, 18, and two other unidentified children, 16 and 10 years old, before turning the gun on himself, the High Point Police Department noted in a media release.
Officers responded to a home on Mossy Meadow Drive around 7:05 a.m. Saturday after two adults — male and female — were reportedly running down the street and screaming for help. When authorities arrived, the two adults led them to the house, where they found the three adults and two children deceased, a media release on Saturday stated.
Police initially said four adults were in the home at the time of the incident.
Two people, 25 and 22 years old, managed to escape the home and find help, according to Capt. Matt Truitt of the High Point Police Department, WFMY reported. They knocked on several neighbors' doors before one woman said she and her parents were awoken by the pair as they banged on the door for help. She didn't know what to do and decided to call police.
"I was just like that's never happened here in like for it to just happened in my house especially it's like oh my God, what do I do?" the woman told WFMY. "I just decided to call 911 because I was like I'll just leave it up to them because I don't want to put my life or my family's life at risk."
The police captain also noted that one of the adults was living at the house and the other was a visitor.
Police questioned the two adults regarding the moments leading up to the shooting. The man revealed troubling details to authorities about Robert Crayton's actions inside the home.
“The man said that it was his father. He woke up, and there was a gun to his head," another neighbor said in an interview with Fox 8. "Somehow he pulled the magazine out of the gun, and they escaped."
Although the incident is an ongoing investigation, Lt. Patrick Welch believes they'll never know the motive that left a family of five dead.
“We may never know why,” he said via Fox 8. “What goes through the hearts and minds of a person that would do this sometimes dies with them.”
According to records, High Point police had been dispatched to the home several times in recent years.
The department had received calls dating back to 2014, 2016, 2019, and in January 2022. Officers responded to the home on reports of domestic violence disputes with no arrests made. In January 2022, however, police were dispatched to the home regarding a medical call and a request for involuntary commitment, per Fox 8.
Chief of Police J. Travis Stroud appeared concerned for the officers' mental health after discovering the gruesome scene inside the home.
"We have to monitor our own officers now. This was a heavy-duty crimes scene," the chief said in a statement obtained by NBC News. "We have to watch out for our own officers and their own mental health and how they push through this incident."
Welch said Robert Crayton possibly had a mental disorder.
"He was suffering from some mental illness," Welch said via NBC News. "I can't speak to the reason under the involuntary commitment. But we do believe it was taken out by the family."
The High Point Police Department has encouraged the public to reach out for any information about violent crime or illegal activity and to contact Crime Stoppers of High Point at 336-889-4000.
If you or someone you know has been the victim of domestic abuse, you can find help and support at DVIS.org, the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or by contacting your local women's shelter (domesticshelters.org).
