The 15-year-old boy who killed his parents and three siblings in Fall City, Washington, attempted to frame his brother for the heinous crime by claiming the killing was part of a failed murder-suicide pact.
Software engineer Mark Humiston, 43, and his registered nurse wife, Sarah, 42, were found dead in their luxurious $1.4 million home in the leafy city 30 miles from Seattle along with three of his five children.
The couple were extremely religious and imposed a highly controlled existence on their five children, even dictating who they could be friends with and homeschooling them.
His oldest son was arrested at the scene and now faces five counts of first-degree murder and one attempted murder, with an arraignment scheduled for Friday.
A police report obtained by DailyMail.com shows the teen attempted to blame the murders on his 13-year-old brother Benjamin, claiming he shot the family and committed suicide after being caught watching pornography the night before.
But police say the 15-year-old killed his family himself using his father’s Glock pistol, and his younger sister, 11, said it was the older brother who fired two shots at him, hitting her in the neck and the arm
DailyMail.com has obtained the first photograph of the accused killer’s son and is preserving his identity, pending his court appearance.
Mark Humiston, 42, his wife Sarah and three of their five children were shot to death inside their home in Fall City, Washington, on October 21. The couple appears in the 2011 photo.
According to detectives, the 15-year-old also attempted to stage the crime scene to lend credence to his story that it was a murder-suicide carried out by Benjamin.
The report notes that a black Glock pistol had been placed in the boy’s hand, but forensic investigators discovered that the gun had not been fired and that blood splatter from a fatal wound to the boy’s face was in the wrong place.
DailyMail.com can also reveal that the 4.55am 911 call that led to the grim discovery was made by the teenager from a bathroom in the house.
The 11-year-old boy survived the massacre by running to a neighbor’s house, but Humiston’s youngest children, Joshua, 9, and Katheryn, 7, also died.
The family, initially reported to have been found in their beds, were found scattered throughout the house with Mark found on the floor at the bottom of the stairs and Sarah “folded over” in her private bathroom.
Mark suffered four gunshot wounds, while Sarah was discovered with two gunshot wounds to the head.
A photo obtained by DailyMail.com shows the five children in happier times, splashing in the lake with their father next to the house they had lived in since 2019, when they moved to Washington from Texas.
Other images show the 15-year-old, described by his lawyer as a fishing and mountain biking enthusiast, playing on a bicycle mounted on a surfboard.
Neighbors had described the quintet as “the perfect family” with soccer coach Rhea Robertson, who had mentored one of the victims, and told KOMO News at a vigil held Tuesday night that the couple had been “dedicated” parents.
He added: “Dad worked very hard and Mum was the most dedicated and loyal mother you could ask for.”
‘You thought they were perfect. From the outside they seemed perfect to me.’
The couple’s eldest son, 15 years old (in green), is accused of killing his parents, two brothers and one of his two sisters. The surviving sister, 11 years old (in red), was shot twice and is now in the hospital. The brothers are photographed with their father in happier times.
The family was found Monday morning in their home in an idyllic Fall City neighborhood along Lake Alice, about 30 miles east of Seattle.
Speaking to DailyMail.com, a neighbor who asked not to be named, said: ‘We used to see them riding their bikes around the neighbourhood.
‘They were a nice family. We never noticed anything bad or unusual. “It is a true tragedy.”
But family insiders told DailyMail.com that their idyllic existence had a dark side, as the ultra-religious parents imposed a strict schedule on their five children and had extremely high “expectations” of them.
The source described how the family maintained a small, close-knit circle and had caused some bad feelings in the community over the summer after ordering their older children to stay away from children of LGBTQ families who lived nearby.
“This caused some concern,” the source said.
‘Mark discovered that the boys had become friends with these children and insisted that they not see them again. Everyone was pretty upset about it.
However, when DailyMail.com visited the scene of the shooting this week, a makeshift memorial made up of huge bouquets of flowers had been placed near the house.
Police are still combing the property, with patrol cars parked near the house while a mobile command center has been set up in a neighbor’s driveway.
The small community, which is located outside of Fall City, is located in a wooded area around the shores of Lake Alice, a small 32-acre freshwater lake stocked with rainbow trout and largemouth bass.
The home on Lake Alice Road is seen with police tape Thursday after Monday’s mass shooting.
Police are still combing the property, with patrol cars parked near the house while a mobile command center has been set up in a neighbor’s driveway.
Homes in the area cost well above the national average of $300,000, with the median property price totaling $1.6 million.
Locals described the area as “peaceful” and told DailyMail.com that crime is a rarity.
One neighbor, who asked not to be named, said: “The last time anything happened was when someone stole mail from my mailbox and that was about five years ago.”
The Humistons were also victims of timber theft shortly after moving in in 2019, prompting their father Mark to equip the home with security cameras.
Police said Tuesday that they had no subsequent records of calls to the home since then and that none of the family members had been in trouble with the law.
Court records obtained by DailyMail.com reveal that the Humistons ran into trouble with a local builder who they sued in 2023, saying he damaged their home during a remodel.
The remodel, which began in 2021 and cost $559,768, caused “significant wall damage” that subsequent repairs failed to fix.
The lawsuit, which was filed in January 2023, was resolved by the conflicting parties in April of the same year and dismissed.