LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. – A man who apparently was breaking up with one of his daughters' mothers used a rifle to kill his two young girls and then shot himself to death at an upstate campground, authorities said.
The girls, ages 3 and 10, may have been sleeping when Adam Parcells shot them Monday night, Warren County Sheriff Bud York said.
Nobody reported hearing the shootings, which happened after a rainy day that saw many people leave at the end of the long Labor Day weekend.
The family had been staying for a short time in a tent at the 168-acre Adirondack Camping Village, 50 miles north of Albany near the village of Lake George, a popular summertime tourist destination, he said. The bodies were found there by the campground owner Tuesday morning.
That was four days after 10-year-old Noel Parcells' mother reported her missing to Rochester police. Also killed was 3-year-old Mia Parcells.
Adam Parcells, 29, was from Hilton, a short drive from Rochester, in western New York. The girls were his children by different mothers, and Mia's mother was separating from him, York said.
"I'm sure there's a huge history in the Rochester area," York said. "We'll have to get that from out there."
The .45-caliber rifle used in the killings was bought at a sporting goods store in Rochester in July, he said.
State police investigators had joined the probe in western New York, he said.