Log In


Reset Password

Police: Deaths of 4 believed homicide-suicide

WYALUSING, Pa. (AP) — Four people were found dead in a northern Pennsylvania home in what is believed to have been a murder-suicide, state police said.

Police in Bradford County said the bodies were found Friday in a home in Wyalusing. Jesse Lee Northrup is believed to have shot and killed Edwin Bidlack, Candy Diane Bidlack and Johnnie Johnson, whose bodies were found in separate locations in the residence, police said.

Northrup was also found deceased in the residence of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, they said. Ages of the four weren’t immediately available. The motivation for the crime “is part of an ongoing investigation,” police said.

Neighbors said Edwin Bidlack owned Ed’s Heating in Wyalusing, and Candy Diane Bidlack was his wife and Johnnie Johnson was his employee. Northrup, they said, was Candy Bidlack’s son.

Donald Pickett, who lives less than two miles away, called the news “tragic” and said the word spread fast in the area of small towns. He said he and his family had known the couple for years, and Ed Bidlack installed furnaces in their homes.

“They are neighbors to my son,” he told WNEP-TV. “They are just great neighbors, good people, and just a huge shock to the community.”

James MacDonald was sitting on his porch trying to absorb the news, calling Ed Bidlack a friend, a neighbor, and “a servant of the whole community.”

MacDonald said he passes through nearly every day and always waved to Bidlack while passing, WBRE-TV reported. He remembered when Bidlack and Johnson fixed a flat tire for him when he had to pick up his special-needs daughter.

“They had me all fixed up. I wasn’t even late,” MacDonald said. “It’s going to be hard to believe that these guys aren’t around.”