Police: 3 dead in Oklahoma home believed to be newspaper publisher, his wife and daughter.
Posted October 14, 2014 4:42 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
DUNCAN, Okla. – Three people found dead in an Oklahoma home are believed to be a newspaper publisher, his wife and daughter, police said Tuesday.
Duncan Police Chief Danny Ford said autopsy results are pending but that as far as investigators can tell, the bodies are those of John and Tinker Hruby and daughter Katherine.
“We are treating this as a triple homicide,” Ford said. “We have a lot of evidence, but as far as looking at anybody, we have no suspects.”
Ford said the family’s housekeeper found the bodies Monday and called police. He declined to say how the family is believed to have been killed.
John Hruby was the publisher of The Marlow Review, a weekly newspaper with a circulation of about 3,500, where his wife also worked. The paper, on its website, posted an entry Monday asking readers to “please pray with us.”
“At this time The Marlow Review asks the general public for prayers following the tragic deaths of John Hruby, our publisher, his wife, Tinker, and their daughter Katherine. Our staff endeavours to continue to serve Marlow to the best of our ability going forward,” the statement read.
Hruby was also publisher of The Duncan Banner until 1997, when his family sold the newspaper, and was vice-president of the Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation Board of Trustees, a part of the Oklahoma Press Association.
Mark Thomas, the executive vice-president of the association, remembered the Hrubys as committed to journalism and to the town.
“They were fun. They enjoyed life. They were firm, yet fair, and we have not come to grips with the fact that we just won’t see their smiling faces at our next meeting. It’s really devastating to the newspaper people in Oklahoma,” Thomas said.
Todd Brooks, the news and sports editor at the newspaper, said Tuesday the staff was still in shock.
“It was surreal yesterday. It was kind of walking around in a zombie-like state. We consider ourselves a family paper. We had six full-time employees here. Now there are four of us.”
