Friends of the family slain on Thanksgiving will gather today to remember the lives of five people ? including the one who killed them.
“Unfortunately, the only person that could shed light on [a motive] is deceased,” Montgomery police spokesman Jimmy Robinson said this week.
Police do not have a motive for the murder-suicide other than domestic violence, based on charges Gail Louise Pumphrey, 43, of Woodbine, filed against her ex-husband, David Peter Brockdorff, 40, including a protective order against him in April, according to court records.
Pumphrey drove her children toUnity Park in an isolated part of northern Montgomery to hand them over to Brockdorff as required in their divorce agreement, Montgomery police said.
Several hours later, a Maryland-National Capital Park police officer, on patrol, described a gruesome scene.
The oldest child, David, 12, a seventh-grader at Glenwood Middle School, and Brandon, 6, a second-grader at Lisbon Elementary School, were found dead inside a Nissan Altima reported stolen Nov. 19 in Frederick County, police said.
Pumphrey, a flight attendant for US Airways, and her daughter, Megan, 10, a fifth-grader at Lisbon, were found dead in her Ford Taurus.
Brockdorff was found dead about 100 feet into the woods from a single gunshot wound from a .22-caliber rifle that he is believed to have purchased legally, police said.
