Couple Went to Sheriff’s Office For Help Hours Before Father’s Murder-Suicide Against Family

Surveillance footage shows the hours leading up to a North Carolina father committing a horrific murder-suicide.

Authorities believe Aschod Ewing-Meeks, 26, shot his girlfriend Ashton Brown, 26, and their two children, Bella, 4, and Brixx, 8 months old, before setting their house on fire and fatally shooting himself, My Fox 8 reports.

A Wednesday press conference detailed the help Ewing-Meeks might’ve sought out before committing the dreadful crime.

Video shows Ewing-Meeks, Brown, and their two children enter the Davie County Sheriff’s Office and speak with a receptionist who says they were vague but asked to see a deputy. When asked to provide an address, the couple gave a residence belonging to Brown’s parents.

The family left the Sheriff’s office at 12:15 p.m. by 12:35 p.m. Brown called 911, asking to speak to a deputy over safety concerns. However, they didn’t specify what the concerns were.

A series of phone conversations between the couple and a deputy occurred for about 20 minutes. When a deputy called back around 1:07 p.m., they could no longer get a hold of the couple, who said they were driving around the area but wouldn’t give an exact location. Ewing-Meeks believed that he was being followed. By 2:00 p.m., a neighbor saw Ewing-Meeks and Brown arguing outside their home before going inside. A few minutes later, they saw smoke coming from the house.

Authorities arrived at the scene by 2:17 p.m. and located the bodies of the four family members. The sheriff says it’s one of the most disturbing crime scenes he’s ever witnessed, NY Post reports.

“I’ve seen a lot in 30 years but children, and especially children that are killed by gunshots and burned, is pretty heinous,” Sheriff JD Hartman said.

“All four victims are deceased from gunshot wounds, the fire was intentionally set and Mr. Meeks was deceased from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and we found the gun that matches all this actually still in Mr. Meeks’ hand.”