Mother killed children, boyfriend before suicide: police

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A rural Illinois mother killed her three children and live-in boyfriend before killing herself last week, police said.

Sara McMeen, 30, was the "sole shooter" of 29-year-old Daniel Warren, 10-month-old Maggie Warren, 8-year-old Skyler Lemke and 7-year-old Ian Lemke, the Livingston County Sheriff's Police in a statement issued on Monday.

An autopsy report found that McMeen died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the neck. A handgun, a semi-automatic 40-caliber pistol, was found next to her hand. An autopsy showed carbon residue on her hands, according to Livingston County Coroner Michael P. Burke.

The bodies were found on Friday afternoon at a home in Emington, a rural town of about 120 people located about 80 miles southwest of Chicago.

Authorities had previously declined to identify the shooter.

David Reiss, a San Diego-based psychiatrist, said it is hard to generalize why someone would kill their family and then commit suicide.

"You don't know what fantasies are going through a person's mind -- whether it's pure rage or pure despair," Reiss said.

Authorities said they are looking for anyone who spoke to McMeen or Daniel Warren in the days before the shootings.

(Writing by Mary Wisniewski, Editing by Peter Bohan)