Husband 'Isolated' Wife from Other People. Then He Killed Her, 3 Kids Before Turning Gun on Himself

Mar. 15, 2025

Briana Payne and children.Photo:GoFundMe

GoFundMe

A family of five was found shot to death at an Indiana mobile home on Friday. The incident, which involved a man, woman, and three young girls, was a murder-suicide, according to police.

Police in Lake Station, about 40 miles southeast of Chicago,said on Friday, Feb. 21that officers had discovered “five deceased individuals” while conducting a welfare check at a mobile home on 9th Avenue at about 2:45 p.m. that day.

The children’s father, Robert Payne, 31, was also found dead at the scene, with authorities ruling it a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Lake Station police said.

Briana’s mother, Lili Owens, toldABC Chicagothat Briana had informed her husband that she wanted a divorce in the days leading up to the shootings.

Cathryn Presley, a former supervisor of Briana’s, also told the outlet that the victim’s husband had tried to isolate her from the people around her.

“Anybody that wanted to get close to her or the kids, [Robert Payne] wanted to create isolation,” she said. “We all knew that there were red flags.”

A neighbor, Sandy Goodman,told WSAZshe’d heard arguing in the days before the killings, and that she knew something was amiss when “the cars weren’t moved, and they go [out] every day.”

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According to Briana’s mother, Lili Owens, her daughter was a secretary for the parent-teacher organization and “went out of her way to help anybody, anytime, anywhere, whatever they needed,” she recalled to ABC Chicago.

AGoFundMe appealto raise money for the mother and daughters' funerals describes Briana Payne as a “loving mother and incredible caregiver” to her own mother, as well as in her work at Sandra Lee’s In-Home Care.

The page notes that Briana’s daughters were her most important priority, reading, “Aurorah, Ava, and Alayna were her heart and soul — her reason for everything."

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go tothehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

source: people.com