Dad kills 16-year-old daughter in murder-suicide (Rutherford, Pennsylvania)

Sorry. Dad TIMOTHY JARMUZEK was not "really nice people." He just had the knack of coming across as such to clueless people who aren't paying attention. Really nice people don't gun down and slaughter their own kids.

Was there a mother in this home? Why is there no mention either way?

INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/11/father_killed_daughter_himself.html

Father killed daughter, himself in Swatara Township shooting, officials say

Published: Sunday, November 27, 2011, 11:36 PM
Updated: Monday, November 28, 2011, 9:29 AM

BY MARY KLAUS AND ED KOMENDA, The Patriot-News

Domestic violence goes beyond dating and marriage partners.

In a rare, horrifying turn this weekend, a Rutherford teenager was shot to death by her father, who then committed suicide.

Taysia Anyee Jarmuzek, 16, was killed by her father, Timothy Jarmuzek, 35, a Hummelstown barber, on Friday night in the Jarmuzek home in the Sunpointe housing development on Kristy Lane in Rutherford, officials said.

Swatara Township police called it a homicide-suicide. Judy Yupcavage, Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence spokeswoman, called it domestic violence.

She said murder-suicides involving a parent and child aren’t as common as murder-suicides between intimate partners, but they do happen.

“There are cases of parents who kill children and children who kill parents,” she said. “Last year [in Pennsylvania], one daughter killed her mother, eight sons killed a parent, four fathers killed their children, two mothers killed their children and a grandson killed a grandparent. This case is a terrible tragedy. Our hearts go out to the family.”

Taysia Anyee Jarmuzek was a Central Dauphin East High School junior.

“We are deeply saddened by this tragic loss,” said Shannon Leib, Central Dauphin School District spokeswoman. “Our thoughts and prayers are with her family. We will be providing grief counseling services for students when they return to school on Tuesday.”

Yupcavage said that in homes with access to firearms, the risk for homicide increases significantly. “Guns are used in more than half of all domestic homicides,” she said.

The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence reported that Pennsylvania had 133 domestic-violence deaths in 2010, including five in Dauphin County, ranging in age from 3½ weeks to 87 years old. Additionally, 36 perpetrators either killed themselves or were killed by police or others intervening to protect victims, bringing the domestic violence death total to 169, according to coalition statistics.

Between 2001 and 2010, Pennsylvania lost 1,532 women, men and children to domestic violence, the coalition said.

Neighbors of the Jarmuzeks, who seemed stunned by the deaths, had divided assessments about the Jarmuzek family.

Yolanda Smyth, 40, who lived next to them, called them “really nice people,” describing them as a tight-knit, normal suburban family.

Nadine Nesbit, a neighbor living across the street, said she understood that there was arguing shortly before the shootings. Maria Ramirez-Dennis, the mother of Taysia’s best friend Jasmine Barber, said the family often fought, even if friends were over.

Police said they don’t know what sparked the violence.

Since the shooting, friends and relatives set up a memorial with candles, flowers and stuffed animals on the front stoop of the town house where the violence occurred.

Taysia Jarmuzek’s friends lamented her death.

Lashay Anderson, who lives across the street from the Jarmuzek home, said she often let her children play with Taysia outside. Anderson called Taysia Jarmuzek a beautiful person.

HOW TO HELP
Anyone with additional information is asked to call the Swatara Township police at 717-564-2550.