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Official: Blaze with 5 dead circumstance of murder-suicide

One of the victims, a wife and mother, worked in Albany

SHEFFIELD, Mass. (AP) — Authorities believe that a man killed his wife and three children before setting their western Massachusetts house on fire and killing himself.

The Berkshire District Attorney tells the Berkshire Eagle that it’s believed the Wednesday morning blaze in Sheffield was a circumstance of a murder-suicide.

District Attorney Andrea Harrington says Luke Karpinski apparently killed his wife, Justine Wilbur, and their 7-year-old twins and 3-year-old before himself.

Harrington says the fire in Sheffield was reported just before 8 a.m. Wednesday, and the home was fully engulfed when fire crews arrived.

Wilbur has been identified by her employer as a patent attorney with an Albany, New York, firm.

The firm said Wilbur “was smart, knowledgeable, dedicated and hardworking,” a devoted mother and a true friend.

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