Police in Utah are investigating the deaths of five people from the same family who were found dead inside their home.

The West Valley City Police Department shared on X (formerly known as Twitter) that officers were investigating a homicide after they found “five people deceased” and one teenager injured inside a home on the 3700 block of Oxford Way — which is located about 9 miles from Salt Lake City.

The five people who were found deceased included two adults, a 42-year-old male, a 38-year-old female, an 11-year-old boy, a 9-year-old girl and a 2-year-old girl. Police noted that their “initial information” indicated that they were all related and lived together. 

Authorities said their investigation began when they were contacted by a family member on Monday, Dec. 16 who had voiced their “concerns” to police after “they had not heard from the woman who lives in the home” after visiting a few days prior. 

Officers then visited the property and attempted to “make contact” with the family. However, when they arrived and knocked at the door, “no one answered,” so officers looked inside the windows of the home and “spoke to neighbors.” 

“They did not find any indications of an emergency or crime so they asked the family member to keep in contact,” police said in their statement. 

When one of the deceased did not show up for work on Tuesday, Dec. 17, the concerned family member decided to enter the garage of the home to check if everyone was okay. While there, she found a 17-year-old family male member suffering from “an apparent gunshot wound” and called the police.

Officers responded to the scene just after 2 p.m., and the 17-year-old was transported to the hospital. West Valley City police spokesperson Roxeanne Vainuku described his injuries as “significant” in a press conference, per KTVX and NBC News.

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“He’s in a condition where we’ve not really been able to communicate with him,” Vainuku said, per NBC News. His exact condition was unknown, per the outlet.

After searching the house, authorities found the five other bodies. However, police did not say how they may have died.

Vainuku described the scene as “absolutely horrific,” and added that it “is something that certainly will weigh heavily on investigators in this case.”

Police said in a statement that they “obtained a search warrant for the home” and investigators had started their investigation inside the home.

“Officers also have canvassed the neighborhood gathering information and any video evidence,” they added.

“At this time, we believe this incident is isolated to this home,” police continued.

FIVE members of a Utah family including children aged 2, 9 and 11 were found dead of gunshot wounds in their home on Tuesday, while one 17-year-old boy was injured, police said.

There were no suspects at large, police said, indicating the shooter was someone within the family.

“We do not believe there’s a suspect on the loose. We believe at this point that this is an incident that’s isolated to this home,“ West Valley police spokesperson Roxeanne Vainuku told reporters.

The 17-year-old was in the hospital undergoing treatment and it was too soon to determine whether he was a suspect or a victim, Vainuku said.

The five dead were a man, 42, a woman, 38, a boy, 11, and two girls ages 9 and 2, Vainuku said.

“This is far beyond anything routine,“ Vainuku said. “There were four (homicides) in the city for the entire year of 2024 so this more than doubles that number. … This is something that certainly will weigh heavily upon investigators.”

West Valley City is a suburb of Salt Lake City with a population of about 134,000.

Police had been called to the home on Monday by a concerned relative but nobody inside responded and officers looking through the windows found no sign of an emergency or crime, Vainuku said.

When the woman failed to show at work on Tuesday, relatives entered the home and found the 17-year-old wounded in the garage. Officers called to the scene entered the home and found the bodies, police said.

In January 2023, a 42-year-old Utah man whose wife had filed for divorce just before Christmas shot dead seven members of his family including his five children ranging in ages from 4 to 17 and then turned the gun on himself, said officials in the town of Enoch City in southwestern Utah.

The University of Utah Health’s new chief is a veteran brain surgeon, educator, health care administrator — and a BYU graduate.

On Tuesday, the state’s flagship university announced that Dr. Bob S. Carter will be the new CEO of University of Utah Health and the school’s senior vice president for health sciences. He begins his duties at the university in mid-February 2025.

“With his own history of research and clinical excellence, Dr. Carter brings a unique ability to run an academic medical center going through exceptional growth and institutional change,” said University of Utah President Taylor Randall in a university release.

“With his leadership, we will ensure University of Utah Health continues to innovate, educate and provide high quality, responsive health care.”

Carter will reportedly manage both the academic and research enterprises at University of Utah Health, with its nearly $500 million research portfolio across five schools and colleges and a health sciences library, according to the release.

He will also oversee a $6.3 billion academic health system comprised of nearly 27,000 faculty and staff, and 6,400 students.

Carter will be charged with integrating the clinical enterprise of 3,700-member faculty and 17 hospitals and community health centers.

“University of Utah Health, and its dedicated faculty, staff and students, are at a unique inflection point,” Carter said in the university release.

“I am impressed by what they have accomplished already as a team. And I am particularly drawn to the vision of the University of Utah as a public university striving to improve every person’s life, and U. of U. Health’s shared missions of leading-edge health care, curing through discovery and enlightening tomorrow’s leaders.”

Much awaits the new leader

According to the university, Carter will be responsible for completing several in-process projects — including dedicating a new Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine Building in 2026; launching the West Valley City Hospital and Health Center; and opening several new Huntsman Cancer Institute and Huntsman Mental Health Institute facilities.

“I expect Dr. Carter to help us make the case to state lawmakers, donors and others for accelerating the growth and achievement of the University of Utah’s world class medical discovery, health care education and patient care,” said Randall.

Carter currently serves as the William and Elizabeth Sweet Endowed Professor in Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School and Neurosurgeon-In-Chief at Mass General Brigham, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

He also has almost two decades of experience as a researcher and professor of neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School, and another seven years at the University of California, San Diego, where he served as chair of the faculty of the school of medicine.

A neurosurgical oncologist, Carter has also served as co-director of the Moores Cancer Center Brain Tumor Program at UC San Diego and the Brain Tumor Program at Mass General.

Carter brings to the University of Utah a rich history in health care administration, according to the news release.

He helped launch the integration of academic and clinical teams at Massachusetts General with Brigham and Women’s Hospital earlier this year. Carter previously served as the clinical director of the UC San Diego Neurological Institute, a co-founder of Mass General Neuroscience, and as a member of the UC San Diego Health Board of Governors.

Carter received his medical degree and a doctorate in epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University in 1992. He claimed a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Brigham Young University in 1986.

Carter replaces Mike Good, who spent almost seven years at the helm of University of Utah Health.

During Good’s tenure, the system nearly doubled its budget, added a hospital and community health center and recruited nearly 8,000 new faculty, staff and students. Meanwhile, patient visits increased by 25% and research funding grew from $356 million to $492 million, according to the university.

Randall saluted Good’s “steady and calm leadership”.

“Mike Good has been an extraordinarily perceptive and effective partner in the effort to guide this institution forward through times of transition, the global COVID-19 pandemic and unprecedented growth,” Randall said. “I am so grateful for his wisdom, patience and calm counsel. His leadership leaves us well-positioned to continue this effort.”