Heather Thompson is dead alongside three members of her family.
All four died by violence in a very short span of time.
Authorities are investigating the deaths of Thompson, her two young sons, and her grandmother as a triple-murder suicide.
Investigators still consider this to be an open case — and are asking the public for information. The boys’ father is publicly sharing his grief.
Tragedy in small town America
On Friday, January 2, the Humphreys County Sheriff’s conducted a welfare check in the small town of Waverly, Tennessee.
There, authorities made a grim discovery of four bodies.
Two were women. Two were young boys.
One of the women was Heather Thompson, a 32-year-old nurse. The other woman was her 88-year-old grandmother, Evelyn Johnson.
The boys were Thompson’s sons, 13-year-old Isiah Johnson and 4-year-old Arius Johnson.
All four had apparently died from gunshot wounds.
Authorities are investigating cause of death, which is sometimes not as simple as it appears.
However, from the initial investigation — that is, police investigating the scene — authorities believe that Heather Thompson was the shooter.
They believe that she shot her sons, her grandmother, and then herself. There is no indication of any suspected motive.
Both the Sheriff’s Office and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are treating this tragedy as an open investigation.
Authorities are still piecing together what may have happened
Family annihilators are a type of killer who, as it says in the name, eliminate their own family members.
The most stereotypical example if this is a man who either believes that he has failed his family or that his family is unworthy or holding him back, so he then kills his wife or girlfriend and their children.
Sometimes, it begins with a single incident — domestic violence that turns fatal, and then eliminating witnesses.
Other times, the family annihilator plans these murders in advance.
There are documented cases of these killings going back throughout recorded history, with some immortalized in legends or even religious narratives.
With so little information available, it is difficult to determine whether this horrific crime is the work of a family annihilator — or simply appears like one.
Authorities have noted that they have found no instances of domestic violence calls from the house.
(As countless survivors know, that does not mean that domestic violence never took place at the home)
Additionally, Biah Thompson, the reported father of the boys, resides in Arizona.
When the Humphreys County Sheriff’s Department wrote about the crime scene in a January 2 Facebook post, Thompson commented.
Their loved ones are experiencing unimaginable grief
“I miss my sons already,” he wrote. “Daddy still loves you. Sorry I was at work.”
That is certainly heartbreaking.
Reportedly, Biah Thompson works at a Subway. It is unclear if these reports are up-to-date.
Investigators are still looking into this crime, and ask anyone with information relevant to these tragic deaths to come forward.
Our hearts go out to all of the family’s surviving loved ones. Perhaps authorities will be able to provide the answers that they need.