Police announced late on Monday that they believe Glenn Baxter, the father and husband in the Arizona family of five who drowned after their car crashed into Tempe Town Lake, had taken deliberate action to kill his family, the Arizona Republic reports.
“This incident is being investigated as a murder-suicide,” a Tempe police spokesman, Lt. Mike Pooley, said. A family friend, Monika Lynn Nathan, told the Republic that Baxter’s wife, Danica, was about to file for divorce.
“He had said in the past that if she left him, he would kill the whole family,” Danica’s grandfather, George Britt, told 12 News.
“I still can’t believe this happened,” he said. “I didn’t know the situation was this bad. I never believed it would end up like this.”
Briefly, there were two Gofundme campaigns set up to benefit the Baxter family. The organizer of one of the campaigns, which has since been shut down—its funds consolidated with another, apparently run by a direct relative—announced:
It is with a heavy heart that I am reporting the tragic news of the murder today of 25 year-old Danica Baxter, her 3 year-old son Reighn, 2 year-old son Naziyah and one year-old daughter Zariyah. All four of them, including the perpetrator (Father), were killed in a murder/suicide car crash into Tempe Town Lake today. According to the family, she was trying to leave her husband of four years. They had been separated for several months and her husband, who had a history of anger issues, was distraught at their separation and planned and executed the murder of his entire family in Tempe Town Lake.
It was previously reported that 2 year-old Nazyiah Baxter was in the hospital in critical condition; he has since died.