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A man and three children were found shot to death inside a home just north of the Utah-Idaho border late Sunday afternoon, in what police are calling a murder-suicide.

Officers were called to the home near 50 W. 200 South in Preston, Idaho, on Sunday evening after a friend discovered the bodies, Preston Police Chief Ken Geddes told KUTV 2News.

Geddes identified the victims as Corbin Hillaker, 15; Jessica Spillett, 6; and McCoy Spillett, 7.

Police believe they were all shot while asleep in their beds by Tate Spillett, 37, who was the father of Jessica and McCoy, and the stepfather of Corbin, according to 2News.

Tate Spillett also was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Geddes said. Police said Spillett used a semiautomatic rifle to kill the children and himself, 2News reported.

Spillett was in the process of a divorce with the children's mother, who was living in Illinois at the time of the deaths, 2News reported. She has since returned to Preston, Geddes told 2News.

Neighbors in the area told the station that there were no warning signs that anything was wrong at the home or that would have predicted the man's actions.

A fundraising page on the YouCaring website (https://www.youcaring.com/summerlaytonspillett-761072) was seeking donations to help the children's mother, identified as Summer Layton Spillett of Preston, pay for funeral expenses.