Looking For Answers In The Sheffield Murder-Suicide.

Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington said Thursday that police were investigating the fatal fire incident in Sheffield as a murder-suicide.

Five individuals, including three young children, died Wednesday morning in a home that burned at 1343 Home Road. Among the deceased were Luke Karpinski and his wife, Justine Wilbur, both 41, who lived in the home with their three-year-old and seven-year-old twins.

“We are investigating this matter as a murder-suicide. At this time, the evidence indicates that Luke Karpinski was the assailant,” District Attorney Andrea Harrington said at a 6 p.m. press conference, held in the DA’s Office. “This is a comprehensive and ongoing investigation. Members of the State Police assigned to the Office of the State Fire Marshal and detectives from the State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office are still combing through the scene and searching for evidence. The scene is secure and there is no reason to believe that the public is endangered at this time.”

Authorities transported the bodies from the deadly fire to Boston so the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner could perform autopsies. Causes of death were not available on Thursday. As of Monday the 18th no new information has been released.

Just before 8 a.m. on Wednesday, state and local police and fire departments responded to service calls for a structure fire at 1343 Home Road. An initial search of the residence revealed the presence of one deceased individual. Four additional deceased persons were later found.

The Berkshire Eagle is reporting That according to a source familiar with the circumstances of the fire an accelerant may have been used to set a fire during the apparent murder-suicide,

Also, Investigators are looking into whether Luke Karpinski stabbed his wife, Justine Wilbur, before setting their Home Road house on fire Wednesday.  On that note, an unnamed official told The Boston Globe that detectives are trying to determine whether Wilbur, 41, had been stabbed first.

Responding to the fire on Wednesday were the Massachusetts State Police Crime Scene Services Section, forensic scientists assigned to the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory, the Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section, Sheffield and Great Barrington police, and fire department crews from Sheffield, Great Barrington, Monterey, Egremont, Richmond, New Marlborough, Canaan, Conn., and Norfolk, Conn.