SMITH — Four members of a family were found dead Sunday inside a home in northern Alberta.
Acting on a tip, RCMP officers went to the remote rural residence southeast of Smith, which is about 65 kilometres southeast of Slave Lake, at about 6:30 a.m.
RCMP Cpl. Wayne Oakes said officers from the Slave Lake detachment set up a perimeter while emergency response teams from Edmonton and Red Deer were called in, along with two police dogs and a helicopter.
“During the time that RCMP was present at the property, they had no contact or communications with anyone on site,” said Oakes.
Officers finally went inside the home about 2 p.m. and found the four members of the family dead.
Oakes said the matter is being treated as a homicide but said no suspects are being sought.
Asked if the deaths were the result of a murder-suicide, Oakes said “that may ultimately be what’s deemed to have occurred, but we have a little bit more investigative work that has to be done before we can definitively make such a statement.”
He would not say how old the victims were, whether they were male or female and how exactly they were related.
He would also not provide more information about the phone tip that led police to the home, saying the Privacy Act prevents him from doing so.
Oakes did say that RCMP “do not have any records of family-violence related calls for service involving this family.”
Autopsies will be done early this week by the Edmonton medical examiner.