PHILADELPHIA _ The deaths of five people, including three children, in a Morrisville, Pa., apartment were intended to be a mass murder-suicide that would claim everyone's life, two of the survivors who have been charged with homicide told police.
They told investigators that one of the dead women killed at least one of the other victims before she was choked to death by her niece, who survived, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in the case.
Shana S. Decree, 45, and her daughter Dominique Decree, 19, were charged with five counts each of homicide and one count of conspiracy in the deaths of five family members whose bodies were found Monday inside unit S-7 of the Robert Morris Apartments at 200 W. Bridge St. in Morrisville Borough, according to court documents.
According to the probable cause affidavit, a case worker from the county Children and Youth Department who went to the apartment for an unannounced visit around 4 p.m. Monday made the discovery after no one answered and she asked a maintenance man to check the apartment.
Inside, the case worker found the apartment in disarray, with "broken glass and clutter throughout," and the two suspects disoriented, the affidavit said.
All five victims were lying either on the floor or crammed into a bed in one of the bedrooms.
The victims included Shana Decree's children, Naa'Irah Smith, 25, and Damon Decree Jr., 13, both of Morrisville; as well as Shana Decree's sister, Jamilla Campbell, 42, of Trenton, and Campbell's 9-year-old twin daughters, Imani and Erika Allen.
Shana and Dominique Decree were taken to Jefferson Bucks Hospital, where Shana initially told police that Jamilla Campbell's boyfriend and two unknown males had killed everyone in the apartment except her and Dominique.
Shana Decree later recanted that statement and told police "everyone at the apartment including the nine-year-olds and 13-year-old wanted to die" and that everyone was "talking about suicide."
Decree confessed to killing one of the juveniles, and said she and Dominique both killed a second, the affidavit states.
She also said that one of the victims, Jamila Campbell, killed Naa'Irah Smith, and that Dominique later killed Campbell.
Dominique Decree admitted to detectives at the hospital that she choked Campbell to death. She said Shana killed two of the juveniles and Smith, and that Campbell choked one of the juveniles.
Uncertain of what they were dealing with, police called in a hazmat unit after responding to the scene but the unit left once it became clear what had happened.
Bucks County District Attorney Matthew D. Weintraub announced the arrests Monday night, saying, "I wanted to make sure everybody knew that the people who committed these atrocious acts are now in custody and (will) be made to pay for their crimes."
Shana Decree was jailed without bail after her preliminary arraignment in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday. Dominique Decree was awaiting her hearing, but she is not entitled to bail because she is charged with homicide.
