The Shorts were like any other family in the tony suburb of Greenwood, Minn. Brian, a former nurse and businessman, and his wife, Karen, were fixtures at school events and soccer games. Their teenage children were friends with all the neighborhood kids.  So Toni Plante, whose daughter went to school with the youngest Short daughter, thought it strange when she didn’t see the girl and her parents on the first day of school. She told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that she texted Karen Short Wednesday to see what was wrong, but never heard back.  On Thursday afternoon, South Lake Minnetonka police arrived at a Greenwood home in response to a request for a welfare check. Inside, they found five bodies bearing traumatic injuries scattered among the rooms in what appeared to be a multiple murder-suicide.  “Unspeakable,” interim Police Chief Mike Siitari told the Star-Tribune, describing the scene.  Police have declined to release the names and ages of the victims, or details about when and how they died, according to the Twin Cities Pioneer Press. But a notice posted to the nursing Web site founded by Brian Short said that the family involved was his.  “It is with great regret and a very heavy heart that I have to share some very sad news with you,” it read. “There is no easy way to say this. We just found out this afternoon that Brian and his family have passed away. The news is calling it an apparent murder-suicide, but this has not been verified by the authorities and details have not yet been released.”  Police say five family members, including three children, are dead in a home in a western Minneapolis suburb in an apparent murder-suicide. (AP)  “No matter what the details are, the results are still the same,” the message continued, “A very tragic loss for the extended families, friends, co-workers, and this nursing community.”  Brian and his wife Karen were both in their 40s, according to the Pioneer Press. The Star Tribune reported that their children, Cole, Madison and Brooklyn, were 17, 15 and 14 and attended Minnetonka High School.  Brian Short, who was active on Facebook and Twitter, often posted about his family on social media. His Facebook page includes snapshots from his daughter’s soccer games, pictures of the family climbing Mayan ruins during a vacation in Mexico, even a birthday photo of the family dog.  Residents of Greenwood, an affluent community of about 700 people 30 minutes from downtown Minneapolis, remembered the Shorts as affable people and good neighbors.  “This is just too sad,” Plante said. “They were the nicest people in the world. There was nothing snooty about them at all. They were just down to earth.”  “To me, there was no indication whatsoever how that could have happened,” Doug Plocek, who lives on the same street as the Shorts’s home, told the Star Tribune. “This whole thing, we’re trying to wrap our heads around it.”  “We’ve never even had a break-in. To have something of this magnitude and it involves children — it just tears me apart,” he added.  Plocek described Brian Short as a congenial man, who helped clear his neighbors’ snow in the winter and always greeted them warmly.  Dave Smits, who lived near the Shorts in their old neighborhood of Lakeville, told local CBS affiliate WCCO that his children were friends with the Short teenagers. He had texted Brian Short earlier in the week and was worried when he didn’t respond. Then he saw the family’s home on the news.  “I went down on one knee,” Smits said. “I couldn’t believe it.”  The principal of Minnetonka High School e-mailed a statement to parents Thursday night, according to WCCO, informing them of a death in the community without identifying those killed. The school added that counselors were available to talk to students about what had happened.  Online, neighbors tweeted their condolences with the hashtag #tonkastrong.  But Plante, whose daughter knew Brooklyn Short, told the Star Tribune she dreaded telling her daughter about the awful news.  “This is going to be tough,” she said.  On allnurses.com, the online community for nurses Brian Short founded, dozens of people commented on the post announcing his death.  “I found Brian and allnurses way back in 2000,” one person wrote. “The comraderie, the mentoring, the sharing, the humor and compassion (and the whining) that is nursing is all here.”  “I’m not sure what Brian thought he was starting, but I’m sure it went beyond his initial imagination,” the commenter continued. “A bright light is gone.”  Florida man plotted Sept. 11 attack in Kansas City, FBI says  The caves that tell the story of humankind, including the latest, Homo naledi  Shocking new photos of James Holmes’s booby-trapped apartment  Sarah Kaplan is a reporter for Morning Mix.
Two parents and their three teenage children were found dead in their home in an affluent Minneapolis suburb.