The 15-year-old boy who murdered his parents and three siblings in Fall City, Washington, tried to frame his brother for the heinous crime by claiming the slaying was part of a failed murder-suicide pact.
Software engineer Mark Humiston, 43, and his registered nurse wife Sarah, 42, were found deceased along with three of their five children in their luxurious $1.4 million home in the leafy town 30 miles from Seattle.
The couple were extremely religious and imposed a very controlled existence on their five children, including dictating who they could be friends with and homeschooling them.
Their eldest son was arrested at the scene and now faces five charges of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, with an arraignment scheduled for Friday.
A police report obtained by DailyMail.com shows that the teen tried to blame his 13-year-old brother Benjamin for the murders, claiming he shot the family and committed suicide after being caught watching the night before to porn.
But police say the 15-year-old killed his family himself with his father’s Glock pistol, along with his younger sister, 11, and that it was the eldest brother who fired two shots at her, hitting her in the neck and hit my arm.
DailyMail.com has obtained the first photo of the accused killer’s son and is keeping his identity pending his court appearance
Mark Humiston, 42, his wife Sarah and three of their five children were shot to death in their home in Fall City, Washington on October 21. The couple is pictured in 2011.
According to detectives, the 15-year-old also tried to stage the crime scene to lend credibility to his story that it was a murder-suicide committed by Benjamin.
The report states that a black Glock pistol was placed in the child’s hand, but forensic examiners noted that the weapon had not been fired and that blood spatter 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 placed by the teenager from a bathroom in the home.
The 11-year-old survived the massacre by running to a neighbor’s house, but the youngest Humiston children – 9-year-old Joshua and 7-year-old Katheryn – also died.
The family, who were initially reported to have been found in their bed, were found scattered throughout the house, with Mark found on the floor at the bottom of the stairs and Sarah ‘curled up’ in her ensuite bathroom.
Mark suffered four gunshot wounds while Sarah was discovered with two gunshot wounds to the head.
A photo obtained by DailyMail.com shows all five children in happier times, splashing with their father on the lake next to the house where they have lived since 2019 when they moved to Washington from Texas.
Other photos show the 15-year-old, described by his lawyer as a fan of fishing and mountain biking, playing on a bike 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, telling KOMO News at a vigil on Tuesday evening that the couple had been “devoted” parents.
She added, “Dad worked so hard, and Mom was the most devoted, loyal mother you could ask for.
“You thought they were perfect. From the outside they looked perfect to me.”
The couple’s eldest son, 15, (in green) is accused of killing his parents, two brothers and one of his two sisters. The surviving sister, 11, (in red) was shot twice and is now in hospital. The siblings are depicted with their father in happier times
The family was found Monday morning in their home in an idyllic Fall City neighborhood on Lake Alice, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Seattle
Speaking to DailyMail.com, a neighbor who asked not to be named said: ‘We often saw them cycling around the neighbourhood.
‘It was a nice family. We never noticed anything wrong or unusual. It’s a real tragedy.’
But family insiders told DailyMail.com that their idyllic existence had a dark side, with the ultra-religious parents imposing a strict schedule on their five children and having extremely ‘high expectations’ of them.
The source described how the family maintained a small, close circle and had created bad feelings in the community over the summer after ordering their eldest sons to stay away from the children of LGBTQ families living nearby.
“It caused some unrest,” the source said.
‘Mark discovered that the boys had befriended those children and insisted that they not see them again. Everyone was quite angry about it.”
Nevertheless, when DailyMail.com visited the scene of the shooting this week, a makeshift memorial consisting of huge bunches of flowers had been erected near the house.
Police are still combing the property, with cruisers stationed near the house, while a mobile command center has been set up in a neighbor’s driveway.
Located on the outskirts of Fall City, the small community is nestled in a wooded area surrounding the shores of Lake Alice – a small, 32-acre freshwater lake stocked with rainbow trout and largemouth bass.
The house on Lake Alice Road was seen with police tape on Thursday following Monday’s mass shooting
Police are still combing the property, with cruisers stationed 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 average price of a home totaling a whopping $1.6 million.
Locals described the area as ‘peaceful’ and told DailyMail.com that crime is a rarity.
A neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: ‘The last time anything happened was when someone stole mail from my letterbox and that was about five years ago.’
The Humistons were also victims of timber theft shortly after moving in in 2019, prompting dad Mark to equip the house with security cameras.
Police said Tuesday that they had no record of calls to the home since then and that no one in the family had ever been in trouble with the law.
Court records obtained by DailyMail.com show the Humistons had issues with a local builder who they sued in 2023 for damaging their home during a renovation.
The renovation, which began in 2021 and cost $559,768, caused “extensive damage to the walls,” which subsequent repairs could not address.
The lawsuit, filed in January 2023, was settled and dismissed by the warring parties in April of the same year.