Cherokee County authorities on Friday identified the three bodies found in a house fire last month in Ball Ground as the members of one family and said they were victims of a murder-suicide.
The medical examiner at the GBI Crime Lab confirmed the bodies were those of Ricky Norrell, his wife Darlene, and their adult daughter Lindsey, according to a news release from Lt. Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office.
The women had gunshot wounds to the head and were victims of a homicide, Baker said. Ricky Norrell's death was listed as a suicide. The investigators concluded he shot his wife and daughter to death before taking his own life.
"Ricky Norrell's body was mostly consumed in the fire," Baker said. "However, the remains of a .22 caliber rifle were found near his body. In addition, the medical examiner's findings were consistent with Ricky Norrell dying from a head wound -- believed to be a gunshot wound."
An investigation is continuing into the cause of the fire, Baker said. Police did not say what motivated the man to kill his family and himself.
Firefighters called to a fire that had engulfed the Norrells' split-level home on Spriggs Trail the early morning of July 18 put out the blaze and discovered three bodies in the rubble.
Within a week of the fire, authorities were able to confirm the identity of 46-year-old Darlene Norrell using dental records. But they had to wait for DNA test results to identify her 49-year-old husband and 19-year-old daughter.
Friends of Lindsey Norrell told the AJC that she had grown up in Cherokee County and had been a popular student at Creekview High School, where she participated in the Friends Club, volunteering her time with special needs children.
She had recently gotten engaged to her boyfriend, a 2012 graduate of Cherokee County High School, and was taking classes at Chattahoochee Technical College to become a nurse, the friends said.
Relatives declined to comment when contacted by the AJC. On Friday, Baker said that the victims' families have requested that the news media not contact them.
Staff writer Alexis Stevens contributed to this article.
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