HAYNESVILLE, LA. (KMSS/KTAL) – Two people are dead and another is in a Shreveport hospital fighting for her life, after their son bludgeoned them with a baseball bat and then took his own life as his grandparents looked on.
George Burch, 55, is dead, while his wife, 51-year-old Teresa Burch is listed in critical condition at Ochsner’s LSU Health Hospital. Their 20-year-old son, Dennis Bunch, was pronounced dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene.
Haynesville Police Chief Anthony Smith said police were called to a home in the 400 block of Main Street early this morning.
When they arrived, they found Dennis Burch inside his grandparents’ mobile home deceased with a gunshot wound in his head.
Burch’s parents, George and Teresa, lived in the mobile home behind the grandparents’ home, and when police went inside, they found the couple alive, but seriously injured.
Because Haynesville is a small town with a population that hovers at around 2,000, Smith said police knew the victims, but if they hadn’t, it would have been impossible to identify them as they were bludgeoned beyond recognition.
Overcast weather conditions made it impossible to airlift the Burches to Ochsner’s LSU Health Hospital in Shreveport, so Smith said they were taken by ambulance, a 62-mile drive.
Although the Burches survived the more-than-one-hour drive, George Burch was later pronounced dead at the hospital. Teresa Burch survived the trip, but is listed in critical condition.
Smith said the investigation revealed that Dennis Burch, who lived with his grandparents, had been in an argument with his parents in their home Monday night. After he returned to his grandparents’ home, he told them he was going to go back to his parents’ house and “kill everybody with a baseball bat.”
At around 3 a.m., that’s exactly what he did. He then went back to his grandparents’ home, he retrieved a gun, and as his shocked grandparents watched, shot himself in the head,
Smith said Dennis had a history of drug use that involved methamphetamines, but nothing indicated they would have led to this kind of violence.
The bodies of George and Dennis Burch have been sent to Little Rock, where autopsies and toxicology tests will be performed.