Oregon Couple Commits Suicide, Kills 5-Year-Old Daughter, With Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

PORTLAND, Ore. – A couple and their 5-year-old daughter are dead of carbon monoxide poisoning after an apparent murder-suicide, police said Friday.

Authorities found a suicide note alongside the bodies of John and Luray Kuca, both 39, along with their daughter Ruby, in their Portland home Thursday night.

A hose from the exhaust pipe of a 1966 hearse led into their sealed-off bedroom.

Family friend Todd Richards of Los Angeles told The Oregonian newspaper he had received an e-mail Thursday evening from John Kuca, saying that his wife had cancer.

"I love Luray so much and can't imagine a life without her," it said. "If you wish to visit with her once more, I suggest it be sooner rather than later."

Richards called authorities, who checked on the family. John Kuca and his daughter were dead at the scene. Luray Kuca had a faint heartbeat but died after she was taken to the hospital.

Authorities said the carbon monoxide in the house was so dense that one officer was treated at a hospital, and then released.

John and Luray Kuca were members of a band, Vertigo Butterfly, which had released an album earlier this year.