Officials: South Dakota man killed wife, 4 kids then himself

Published 2:04 pm Tuesday, September 22, 2015

PLATTE, S.D. — A father’s apparent killing of his wife and four children with a shotgun and the grim discovery of their charred remains has shaken a rural community in South Dakota and left residents asking why.

Authorities believe Scott Westerhuis fatally shot his wife and four children on Thursday, torched their house near Platte and then turned the shotgun on himself, South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said.

Ken Lieuwen, a hardware store owner and distant cousin of Scott Westerhuis, said the deaths have rocked Platte, a community of around 1,200 residents about 110 miles west of Sioux Falls. As a father, he can’t imagine what could prompt someone to kill his children, he said.

“I just feel sorry for the family and friends,” Lieuwen said Tuesday. “There’s anger at Scott, and disbelief that the family is gone.”

Preliminary autopsy results show all six members of the Westerhuis family died of shotgun wounds. The bodies of Scott and Nicole Westerhuis and their children Kailey, Jaeci, Connor and Michael were found in the burned ruins of their home. A passer-by reported the blaze early Thursday, but the fire chief said the home was all but destroyed by the time firefighters arrived.

“It’s hard for us to determine exactly if he (Scott Westerhuis) started the fire, but that’s the only thing that makes sense,” Jackley’s spokeswoman, Sara Rabern, said.

Counselors were back at the Platte-Geddes schools attended by the Westerhuis children on Tuesday to talk with students about the tragedy.

Superintendent Joel Bailey said the district was choosing to highlight the kids’ personalities in the statement it sent out Tuesday afternoon.

Kailey, a third-grader, lit up a room with her smile and personality and was loved by all her classmates. Jaeci, a fifth-grader, was quieter and more reserved but had a kind heart and was active in basketball, volleyball and swim team. Connor, an eighth-grader who played football, basketball and baseball, was polite, considerate and a bit of a prankster. Michael, a sophomore, was an excellent athlete, a talented musician and singer who also was on the quiet side, the district said.

The Westerhuis property on a gravel road 3 miles south of Platte resembles a mini sports complex, complete with a half-size football field with two goalposts and a two-story metal building that houses an indoor gym and weight room.

Bailey said the gym was a popular spot for many students.

“The friends of Michael and Connor would go and play basketball there,” Bailey said. “Various groups were allowed to use it for practices.”

The Westerhuises were building another structure, but its purpose was not known. On Tuesday, its open walls awaited roof trusses that sat on the ground nearby.

“We couldn’t ask for better neighbors,” said the family’s nearest neighbor, Marc King.

Tami Smit, who works at a coffee shop on Platte’s Main Street, said she has 10- and 13-year-old daughters who went to school with the Westerhuis children. Her daughters were already mourning the loss of their classmates when she had to tell them about the apparent murder-suicide, Smit said.

“It’s a whole another set of emotions for the kids to process,” she said. “This is something that all of our kids are going to need help with for who knows how long.”

Scott and Nicole Westerhuis both worked for Mid-Central Educational Cooperative, a Platte-based education organization that provides speech, language and hearing services to several area school districts. Scott Westerhuis served as the organization’s business manager for about 15 or 16 years, and Nicole Westerhuis served as assistant business manager for about 8 years.

Scott Swier, whose firm represents Mid-Central, said he had no reason to believe Scott Westerhuis committed any wrongdoing before the incident last week.

“I have no evidence of that whatsoever,” he said.

Swier said both Scott and Nicole Westerhuis were still employees of Mid-Central at the time of the fire. He said he couldn’t comment further on personnel issues.

“We join the community of Platte as we grieve the loss of lives that will impact this community for the foreseeable future,” Mid-Central Superintendent Dan Guericke said in a statement.

A search of federal and state court records did not find any criminal or civil cases against Scott Westerhuis. State records list only a handful of traffic violations, the most recent one for speeding in August 2013 in Turner County.