Murder-Suicide Antidepressant Withdrawal 19/02/1997 Utah Daughter Shoots Mother & Self Summary:

Ann Tracy, Ph.D., Executive Director of the International Coalition for Drug Awareness, confirmed that the woman perpetrator in this case was in recent antidepressant withdrawal.
Deseret News Archives

Wednesday, February 19, 1997

POLICE SEEK THE 'WHY' IN DEATHS OF 2 WOMEN

Holladay mother and daughter shot to death in apparent murder-suicide.

By Hans Moran, Staff Writer

Police are still searching for a motive in a murder-suicide
Tuesday afternoon that left a mother and daughter dead inside a quiet
apartment complex.

The trouble became evident at 3:41 p.m. when Charli Seiter, 54,
called 911 saying she had "shot her mother and now she was going to shoot
herself" as she put the phone down.

Three minutes later, Salt Lake County deputy sheriffs found
Marjorie Larson, 77, and Seiter, also known as Charlene, dead in their
first-story apartment living room at 1039 E. 4700 South.

"We're pretty confident that this is a murder-suicide," Sft. Jim
 Potter said. "The daughter shot her mother and then she went ahead to shoot
herself.  The big thing that we don't have right now is the why."

Investigators spent Tuesday night sorting through the apartment in
search of evidence that might help them identify a motive. No one witnessed
the shootings.

The victims had shared the apartment for some time, but there wasn't any indication of prior domestic problems, Potter said.  Some of the victims' neighbors gathered at the scene while the investigation was conducted  Upon arriving, Potter said, officers found the front door ajar with pieces of mail strewn about near Larson's body.

Shortly before she was shot, the mother had gone to retrieve her mail in the front office.
They were the last ones to see the mother alive," he said.

There was no evidence of a struggle or a fight.

A handgun was also found in the living room, Potter said.  Both victims were shot once in the chest.

The sheriff's office investigates only a few murder-suicides every
year, Porter said.  But this case is unusual because there is no obvious reason for the shootings.

"There's no record of any problem with these individuals or the apartment," he said. "And there's no history of domestic disputes at the address.  That, we're sure of."

The incident left Seiter's three adult children shocked and wondering why.

"We had no idea this was going to happen," Scott Seiter told the Salt Lake Tribune.  "I can't believe it."

Charli Seiter had worked at the newspaper as a librarian and secretary before suffering a stroke and being placed on long-term disability leave in 1996.