Clarkstown community left shaken after family's apparent murder-suicide
NEW CITY, New York (WABC) -- A community in Rockland County has been left shaken following a triple murder-suicide that occurred just days shy of the new year.
Four family members were found dead inside a home on Clydesdale Court in New City after police performed a wellness check on the morning of Dec. 30. Watson Morgan, 49, Ornela Morgan, 43, and their two sons, ages 10 and 12, were found with gunshot wounds and pronounced dead at the scene.
Pictures from happier times now appear outside the home as part of a growing memorial, including one that shows Ornela Morgan and her two sons under the message: "forever in our hearts."
Nowhere to be found is a photo of Watson Morgan, a Sergeant with the Bronxville Police Department, who police say shot and killed his family before turning the gun on himself.
Clarkstown Police made the grim discovery after the Bronxville Police Department requested a welfare check when Watson Morgan, who was just two months shy of retirement, failed to show up for his shift Friday night.
"As you would imagine, this is the deepest sense of grieving that a school community can possibly have," said Clarkstown Schools Superintendent Marc Baiocco.
Tuesday would have been the first day back at school for Liam and Gabriel Morgan.
Liam, 10, was a fifth grader at Laurel Plains Elementary and his 12-year-old brother Gabriel was in the seventh grade at Felix Festa Middle School.
Grief counselors will be at both locations for the next several days, but the district opened its doors Sunday for members of the community and beyond.
A Facebook page launched in tribute of the Morgan family has been compiling photographs and messages offering condolences.
Counselors are also in place at the Bronx school where Ornela Watson worked as a teacher.
"This was something that truly impacted a larger community than what we originally anticipated," added Baiocco.
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