Utah mother killed 9-year-old daughter and then herself, police say after finding their bodies on New Year’s Eve

Magna • After a Christmas present on a family’s porch sat neglected for a couple of days, a concerned fellow church member called police to check on the mother and daughter who lived in the house. Inside that home, late on New Year’s Eve, police found that the woman and her 9-year-old were dead.

Unified police investigators said they believe 41-year-old Karina Clark shot her 9-year-old daughter, Madison Clark, before shooting herself. Police think they died between one to three weeks ago, Lt. Brian Lohrke said at a news conference broadcast live by KUTV.

Police believe no one else lives in the house near 2700 South and 8990 West.

Since the bodies were discovered, neighbors and police have asked themselves the same question: Why?

“This is one of those situations where we’re kind of left in the dust right now, trying to figure out why a mother had the need to kill her 9-year-old daughter,” Lohrke told reporters. “It’s a question we may have forever.”

Ben Cummins lived next to the Clarks for about a year. He told The Salt Lake Tribune on Monday that he couldn’t recall anything bad about the family.

Based on everything he knows about the Clarks, the police explanation of their deaths doesn’t compute. He described Karina Clark as a “warm person” with a “good heart.”

He remembers Karina Clark had taken her daughter to the lake for a few days over summer, and the girl came back sunburned and happy. And how they helped him when he locked himself out of his house (Madison climbed through a window to unlock the front door). And how the two had shared their harvest of squash and cucumbers from their garden with him.

Cummins said he’d just seen Karina Clark about three weeks ago, when she asked to use his clothes dryer. Cummins said he saw Madison about a week and a half ago, playing outside her house.

“I said, ‘How could somebody do that to their child, to anybody?’” Cummins said. “Then, seeing her with her daughter and stuff — it just doesn’t add up.”

On Monday, family members were going in and out of the house, trying to clean up. The yard was mostly bare, save for a child’s hot-pink-wheel scooter leaning against the house.

There was also a pink display, like a flower bouquet, on the front porch. Cummins left it there just before sundown because he wanted to do something for the family, he said.

Looking back over the few hours since police descended on his street on New Year’s Eve that Cummins hoped to spend quietly, he said he’s still trying to process what happened.

“I just wish that you could back this up,” he said. “Like, rewind it, say, ‘No, this didn’t happen.’ But you can’t.’”