Vigil planned for family found dead in Duluth home

By KSTP

Sean, Shiway, Riana and Sadie Barry. (Family)

Those who knew the Duluth family killed in a murder-suicide this week are inviting the community to a public vigil outside the family’s home on Sunday.

Officers found the victims while responding to a welfare check on Wednesday. The victims were identified as 9-year-old Sadie Lucille Barry, 12-year-old Shiway Elizabeth Barry, 44-year-old Riana Lou Barry and 47-year-old Sean Christopher Barry, as well as the suspect Brandon Taylor Cole-Skogstad, 29.

Police said Cole-Skogstad was Riana’s and Sean’s nephew.

Duluth Police Chief Mike Tusken called the incident an “unimaginable tragedy.”

“Incidents like these shake our sense of safety as a community and the region as a whole,” Tusken said. “In my 30 years of policing, I have never seen anything like this. Sometimes people forget that the officers and investigators responding to the scene have families too. This is devastating for them to respond to, to see, and to process afterwards. I cannot thank the members of our team enough for their service, and for their care for this community.”

Hubbard Broadcasting sister station WDIO-TV reports the vigil is set to take place outside the family’s home Sunday, with a street closure expected to start at 6 p.m.

There will then be a short program at 8 p.m. to mark the lighting of the home, WDIO reports.

“It’s very Duluth to show up for one another like this…to come together knowing that this was a horrific action and have a positive thing by lighting the house up with Christmas lights because that was their favorite holiday,” Kate Van Daele, the city’s public information officer, told WDIO.