This was another case of a family “Terminating” their mortgage problem:
Distraught father shoots family, self
William Brand,, Kelly Rayburn
BERKELEY — Investigators this morning are continuing to unravel the macabre murder-suicide of a Berkeley family in Tilden Park late Monday. Authorities are focusing on the suicide note blaming insurmountable financial problems.
They were also checking a report the father suspected in the tragic event, Kevin Morrissey, 51, had a background with the Central Intelligence Agency. His resume, posted online, says he served in the U.S. Army Special Forces and worked for the U.S. diplomatic corps for many years.
East Bay Regional Park police believe Morrissey shot and killed his daughters, Nikki, 8, and Kim “Lena,” 6, inside their Honda hatchback, and his wife, family physician Mamiko Kawai, 40, before turning the .357 Magnum handgun on himself.
The Contra Costa County Coroner’s office conducted autopsies Tuesday, confirming the causes of death for all four family members were gunshotwounds to the head.
Despite the suicide note left by Morrissey, friends and neighbors said they had no indication of financial problems. Court documents showed the family had just refinanced the mortgage on their home in the 1300 block of Northside Avenue on June 6 and, on the same date, took out an additional $72,500 loan.
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He said all authorities were able to figure out thus far was Morrissey was facing serious financial trouble.
“He was having severe financial problems,” Davis said. “He just let that — for lack of a better term — get the best of him.”
The initial indication of financial troubles came from Morrissey’s suicide note, but Davis said police had also seized financial documents from his home Tuesday.
The documents will be analyzed to learn more about the specifics of the family’s situation, he said.
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Carolyn Kemp of Alta Bates-Summit Medical Center said Kawai had been a family practitioner and dermatologist at the Albany Family Practice, which is part of Alta Bates, for at least seven years. She graduated from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.
In her residency at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center, she worked at San Francisco General Hospital as a family practitioner with a special interest in women’s and children’s health, Kemp said.
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Former patients said she left full-time family practice to concentrate on her skin care business.
