http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100317/NEWS0107/3170387/1116/RSSNEWSMAP

Last modified: March 17. 2010 5:16PM PST

Deschutes County investigators say a Sunriver man strangled his wife and son then hanged himself last week in what authorities are now calling a murder-suicide case.

Joachim Steffan killed his wife, Dagmar, and 7-year-old son, Pascal, then left their bodies in the bedroom of the home on Hermosa Lane. Investigators say he also cut the throats of the family’s two cats and a dog and left the animals’ bodies in the house as well.

Detectives found three suicide letters in the home and determined that e-mails had been sent to family in Germany that also talked about the suicide, according to assistant Deschutes County district attorney Darryl Nakahira.

Authorities are still waiting for toxicological results to come back and the investigation remains open. But, he said, investigators have determined that the deaths were a murder-suicide.

-- The Bulletin