NSW: Family of five killed in northern Sydney
Sun Jul 19 04:44:00 EST 2009
SYDNEY, July 19 AAP - A family of five, including two children, have been killed in a northern Sydney home in what's believed to have been a violent robbery.
Fairfax and News Ltd newspapers say the victims were Chinese-born Min Lin, 46, his wife Yun Li Lin, 44, two sons, aged 12 and nine, and another female relative aged in her 40s.
Fairfax says that when police found the bodies of the two boys and two women at the home in Boundary Road, North Epping, on Saturday they thought the victims had been killed in a domestic incident. But when Mr Lin's body was found in a bedroom with serious head injuries, police realised they were dealing with the murders of five people.
The bodies of two of the deceased were found by a female relative who arrived at the home shortly after 9.50am to inquire why the family had not opened their Rawson Street newsagency at Epping Shopping Centre.
Eastwood Police Acting Superintendent Stephen Henkel could not confirm the exact causes or times of death.
"At this stage, it's going to be a long and protracted inquiry," he said.
The papers say that on May 27, Mr Lin had been a witness to an armed robbery on a Chubb armoured van outside the Epping Club, across the road from his newsagency, which netted $1.2 million.
But Fairfax says police are uncertain whether the two crimes are linked and are investigating whether the family were the victims of an extortion demand or a violent home robbery.
And News Ltd says police have not ruled out the possibility of a murder-suicide.
AAP ao
