Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

Tabernacle mother shot children and self, police say

Jeaninne LePage muffled the blasts of the revolver with a pillow, shooting her children one by one, police said. Nadia, 8. Alexander, 11. Nicholas, 14. In what order, unknown.

An investigator works at the scene Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014, in Tabernacle, N.J. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
An investigator works at the scene Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014, in Tabernacle, N.J. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)Read more

Jeaninne LePage muffled the blasts of the revolver with a pillow, shooting her children one by one, police said.

Nadia, 8. Alexander, 11. Nicholas, 14. In what order, unknown.

Three bullets. And then a fourth - one for herself, police said.

When the gunfire ended Thursday, LePage and her children lay in her bed in their home in Tabernacle Township, Burlington County, each with a wound to the head.

On Friday, as LePage and Alexander - the only survivors - remained in critical condition at Cooper University Hospital, investigators revealed gruesome details of the incident, which Mayor Joseph W. Barton called "the worst thing that has ever happened in Tabernacle."

State Police Capt. Geoff Noble, braving a blustery chill outside the station of the first responders in neighboring Southampton, made investigators' thoughts clear. "There are three victims who were shot," he said. "And one suspect."

The revelation was of little solace in the secluded community of 7,000 abutting Wharton State Forest, where vigils offered temporary comfort and residents struggled to grasp what could drive a mother to such action.

On Friday, possible clues began to emerge.

At Nixon's General Store & Deli, on New Road a short walk from the elementary school the children attended, LePage, 44, was a familiar customer.

She often brought the children into the store, where they ran through the aisles, stocking up on bubblegum and chocolate candy with big smiles, said Jack McGinnis, 52, who owns the store with his wife.

"Really, really, really beautiful, nice kids," he said Friday.

He said LePage sometimes spoke to her children loudly enough for other customers to hear - about buying cigars for their father, Walter Harriman. Authorities said he didn't live with the family. Why he didn't is unclear.

Still, McGinnis saw little amiss with LePage until late September. That's when two of the checks she paid with bounced. A few weeks later, two more.

The total loss was about $400, McGinnis said.

He called LePage's home to notify her, but no one answered. He mailed a letter. No response.

Finally, McGinnis filed a complaint at town hall.

Whether financial issues played a role in the shootings also was unclear Friday.

State Police Capt. Stephen Jones declined to speculate, saying, "We may never know." That's mostly due to LePage's precarious condition in the hospital. Authorities are basing potential charges on her survival.

She and her children lived on the upper floor of the two-story home on Holly Park Drive. LePage's sister and brother-in-law live with their two children on the lower floor, police said. LePage's mother also lives in the home.

One of those five called 911.

No one heard the shots, police said. They were fired between 5 and 9 a.m. Thursday. The revolver LePage used had been in the family for some time, police said.

The county medical examiner conducted autopsies Friday, police said.

On Friday, as students returned to Seneca High School to find their classmate, Nicholas, missing, a counselor attended each of his classes.

Nicholas belonged to the Iron Devils, an after-school club that built robots, school officials said. The goal each year: To make the robot perform a certain task, and then compete with robots from other schools.

The Iron Devils have a competition Saturday at nearby Cherokee High School. At Seneca, in the cafeteria, the doors will open Saturday for a different reason: Counseling.

At Holy Eucharist Catholic Church on Friday morning, the Rev. Andrew Jamieson looked onto a tearful crowd of nearly 160 people, searching for answers.

He couldn't provide them all. In all fairness, no one could.

So the pastor relied on his best tool: the Bible.

As a few members of the LePage family - who belong to the church on Medford Lakes Road - sat in the front, Jamieson read from Romans 8:31-39.

"If God is for us, who can be against us?" the scripture said. He read on: ". . . Neither death nor life . . . will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

People embraced. They cried. But the message, Jamieson said, was that the town is there for the LePage family.

At the LePage home on Friday night, only the lights next to the garage were on. The police tape and flashing lights were gone.

The rest of the house was dark.