ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. _ Four people were found shot to death late Thursday, including a 10-year-old boy, in a North County home in what police call a gruesome scene.
St. Louis County Police said Friday afternoon that they had determined the attacker was not among the dead and remains at large.
Relatives had asked police just before midnight Thursday to check on family members at the small one-story home. Relatives had last heard from the occupants on Wednesday night, St. Louis County Police Officer Benjamin Granda said.
Officers who entered the home with family members found "as gruesome a scene as you can imagine," Granda said. All four victims were dead of apparent gunshot wounds.
The victims are believed to be a 56-year-old woman, two males _ ages 20 and 18 _ and a 10-year-old boy.
The names of the victims were not released Friday. A woman at the scene who had asked police to make the check told reporters that her teenage son was among the victims.
Granda said he doesn't know the relationship of the victims. Autopsies were being performed Friday afternoon and more information will be released once they are completed, he said.
Granda said he had no further information.
The three-bedroom home is in an unincorporated area of north St. Louis County called Glasgow Village. The home was still cordoned off with yellow police tape hours after the bodies were discovered.
After the sun came up, onlookers consoled one another and gave updates to friends over their cellphones. A half dozen stood next to a street sign wrapped in the crime-scene tape. One woman cried out, then dropped to her knees, after hearing the news. "Why, why?" she wailed.
They watched from a yard away as workers carted the bodies out on gurneys.
Neighbor Beverly Smith, who has lived on the street since 1982, said she didn't know the people who lived in the home but said she had never known there to be any "commotion or trouble" at the small home with white siding.
"Very quiet," she said.
About a month ago, the occupants parked a passenger bus, painted black, on the street in front of the home. It was known in the neighborhood as "the party bus." It was taking up so much space on the street, residents complained and it was removed.
