Disturbing murder-suicide trend in Massachusetts continues

The recent alleged murder-suicide in Dover last week is the latest in a disturbing trend of family murders in the Bay State.

Authorities from the Norfolk Sheriff’s Office released new details confirming that the couple and daughter found dead in their 5-million-dollar Dover mansion were the result of a domestic violence incident. Husband and father, Rakesh Kamal, 57, shot and murdered his wife Teena Kamal, 54, and their daughter, Arianna Kamal, 18, and then turned the gun on himself. The trio were found by a relative who went to the home to check on the family.

Less than a year ago, in February of 2023, a similar situation occurred in Andover Massachusetts where Andrew Robinson, 56, fatally shot his wife Linda, 55, their 12-year-old son Sebastian and, like Kamal, turned the gun on himself. The family was found just minutes after a 911 call made by Andrew alerted authorities to a domestic violence situation underway.

The Robinson murders were just 8 months before the Clancy murders in Duxbury where mother Lindsay Clancy killed her three children and attempted suicide by cutting her wrists and jumping from a second-story bedroom window. Clancy survived but her children, 5-year-old daughter Cora, 3-year-old son Dawson and 8-month-old Callan did not. Clancy has been indicted by a grand jury and is set to appear in court on January 17th.

In October of 2022, husband Colin Canham, 45, was found outside his home with a gun and his wife, Sara, 45, was found shot inside. The couple had a six-year-old child who was not home at the time of the murders.

The year before, in June of 2021, 34-year-old Jamie A. Dickinson was shot and killed by her partner Jesse A. Brooks in their Oxford home. Brooks killed himself after murdering Dickinson with her three children inside the home at the time of the killing. They escaped unharmed.

According to the Violence Policy Center, nearly eleven murder-suicides occur across America each week, claiming more than 1200 lives annually.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, click here for resources to get help now.