Deaths of 5 stun neighbors, family

Authorities plan charges against Michel Veillette, the husband and father of the victims.

MASON, Ohio (AP) — Jan Settelmayer was excited to be moving into a new, custom-built ranch home in an upscale suburban neighborhood last September, and even more so after she met her neighbors.

She liked Nadya Ferrari-Veillette, two houses down, who was from Canada and was bilingual.

“She spoke French, and she was going to help me learn French,” Settelmayer said Monday. “Now, it’s hard to even look at her house.”

Settelmayer’s comments came three days after Ferrari-Veillette, 33, died of multiple stab wounds and was found with her four children — ages 3 to 8 — inside their burning southwest Ohio home.

The children’s father, Michel Veillette, 34, remained hospitalized with unspecified injuries. He has been interviewed by police and will be arraigned on multiple charges, including aggravated murder, as soon as he is released from a hospital, prosecutors said.

Fire investigators put up yellow tape Monday to keep people away from the Veillette home at the end of a three-house cul-de-sac on Brackenview Court — so new that it isn’t on most maps.

Even from a distance, one could see the scorched brick around a second-story window, just above the entryway. At the curb was a makeshift memorial, covered by a tent, with teddy bears, flowers and hand-lettered signs.

One read: “We are so sorry that you sweet little ones had to pay the price for an adult’s anger.”

Settelmayer didn’t know anything was wrong until firetrucks showed up at the cul-de-sac about 10 p.m. Friday.

Then she saw paramedics taking Veillette to an ambulance.

“I guess I was in denial, but I was hoping nobody else was home,” Settelmayer said. “I couldn’t see them take the children away; the firetrucks blocked my view.”

Ferrari-Veillette and one child were dead at the scene, and the others died at a hospital, the coroner said.

Results of autopsies and other forensic screenings of the children — Marguerite, 8; Vincent, 4; and twins Mia and Jacob, 3 — remained incomplete Monday.

Settelmayer said Veillette had introduced himself to her before and seemed friendly enough, but she saw him only a few times because he traveled a lot.

Veillette’s sister-in-law, Eve Veillette, said she and her husband, Eric Veillette, were on their way to Mason, about 20 miles north of Cincinnati.

“Both families are grieving, both families are close and carrying each other in the difficult situation they are presently living through,” she said.

Veillette’s mother, Louise Dufault, told Le Journal de Montreal the couple were deeply in love and that she doesn’t believe her son is guilty.

“Nadya and Michel were both born on Aug. 8,” she said in an interview published Sunday. “They were madly in love.”

Dufault, who lives in St-Lin-Laurentides, Quebec, said the whole family seemed happy when they visited at Christmas.

The newspaper also spoke to Guy Ferrari, one of Ferrari-Veillette’s uncles, who was equally stunned.

“Michel was part of the family,” said Ferrari, who lives in Boisbriand, Quebec. “We would never have thought about something like that. It’s a shock. It’s completely incomprehensible.”

Authorities have charged Veillette with four counts of aggravated murder, one count of murder and one count of aggravated arson, but those are pending grand jury action, Warren County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel said.

A grand jury could hand up indictments on those or other charges, she said.

“Our goal right now is to bring someone to justice for what has happened to these four innocent children and their mother,” Hutzel said. “I think we’ve got the right person.”

But she said repeatedly that she wanted to be cautious about tainting the jury pool with too many comments about the case. Authorities wouldn’t discuss a possible motive or other evidence during a news conference.

“We are involved in a very complex investigation,” said Ronald Ferrell, Mason’s police chief. He said police had talked to Veillette at least twice, once for more than an hour.

Authorities declined to talk about Veillette’s injuries or condition; initial reports Friday night were that he had stab wounds and police said Saturday he was unconscious. He had been listed in serious but stable condition Sunday. Neighbors also said he might have been cut by glass fragments from a broken window in the front of the house.

“We do not know with any certainty the cause of his injuries,” Hutzel said.

Shane Cartmill of the Ohio State Fire Marshal’s office said a gas can was found in the home’s second story, but investigators were still trying to determine details of how the fire started.

Hutzel said she didn’t know whether Veillette had hired a lawyer.

Officials were still putting together details of the Veillettes’ background, but believe they had previously lived in nearby Middletown, moving to Mason about 18 months to two years ago.