The timid, brown-haired girl was so close to her mother, Sharon Al-Shimmary, that not even her aunt could get her to let go. "She wouldn't leave her mom for nothing," said Pauline Carson.

But Al-Shimmary, a loving mother, was also depressed, her brothers and sisters said Monday.

On Sunday, fire crews arrived at the family's home, near 5700 South on Stone Bluff Way, to find thick smoke pouring from a locked, upstairs bedroom. When the fire was extinguished, investigators discovered the bodies of Al-Shimmary and her three children, Ashley, 9; Christopher, 7; and Heather.

Preliminary autopsy results released Monday afternoon suggest Sharon Al-Shimmary, 40, killed her children and herself, said Salt Lake County sheriff's Lt. Paul Jaroscak.

The specific causes of deaths were not released. However, Bruce Harper, Al-Shimmary's younger brother, said investigators told him pills were found in the home and that an accelerant was used to start the fire. He also said his sister left a suicide note, but it had not been released to the family yet.

Harper and Carson said their sister had suffered from depression since separating from her husband two years ago. Deepening her depression was the death of Al-Shimmary's third-born child, Joshua, who succumbed to pneumonia shortly after the split. He was only 2.

"That's one I don't think she's ever recovered from," Harper said.

Sharon Al-Shimmary was the third-oldest child of Dan and Sharal Harper. She had five brothers and one sister.

Al-Shimmary grew up in Magna and Draper and was an outgoing teenager at Bingham High School, her sister said. She wanted to be an actor and took drama courses to get better. But her plans got sidetracked when she got married shortly after graduation - a relationship that lasted less than two years.

About nine years ago, Sharon married Ahmed Al-Shimmary.

Their children, Ashley, Christopher and Heather, ''were just the cutest kids," Carson said. "All of them were beautiful.''

Christopher was turning into a neighborhood entrepreneur by offering his dog-walking services to his neighbors for $1, said Harper.

"He was a go-getter," he said. "He had energy and wanted to make money."

Harper also said, "Ashley was really turning into a pretty girl and doing well in school."

Sharon Al-Shimmary was a real-estate agent with Caldwell Banker for a few years and was good at it, Bruce Harper said.

In her spare time, she enjoyed water skiing, boating and camping, her older brother Steve Harper said.

But a bumpy second marriage eventually led to separation, and the emotional pain of Joshua's death was heartbreaking, her family said.

Carson said she went shopping with her sister and Heather last week, but she didn't talk about suicide. Al-Shimmary was the type of person who struggled with problems internally while keeping a sunny disposition on the outside, Carson said.

Ahmed Al-Shimmary could not be reached for comment Monday. "From what I heard, he took the news hard," Bruce Harper said.

Al-Shimmary's family members were making funeral arrangements Monday.

But mostly they grieved.

"You just feel like it's not real," Carson said. "It's hard because it's all of them."

jbergreen@sltrib.com