Police say mother stabbed self, died of smoke inhalation

A Kearns woman police say killed her three children before committing suicide, stabbed herself multiple times before dying from smoke inhalation, according to police and family members.

Her two oldest children also died from smoke inhalation, but investigators still are not saying how the youngest child was killed.

Sharon Al-Shimmary and her three children, 9-year-old Ashley, 7-year-old Christopher and 2-year-old Heather, all were found dead in a bedroom of their home, near 5700 South and 5500 West, on Oct. 28. A fire was intentionally started on the floor of the bedroom where they were found. All of the windows were shut, and the door to the room was locked from the inside.

Originally, investigators declined to say how the four died, noting only that there were no visible signs of trauma on the children.

Salt Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Paul Jaroscak confirmed Wednesday not only that smoke inhalation was believed to have killed Sharon Al-Shimmary, but also that she had several stab wounds that appeared to be self-inflicted. Officials have determined that the stab wounds were not the cause of death, he said.

The Utah state medical examiner found that Sharon, Ashley and Christopher all were breathing at the time the fire was started, Jaroscak said. But investigators still didn't know Wednesday whether the fire alone painted the entire picture of what happened inside the house. Jaroscak said other factors may have been involved.

"We're waiting for toxicology test results to determine if there were other factors," he said.

Jaroscak could not comment on what those other factors might be. Investigators earlier had noted there were a significant amount of prescription medications in the house.

One of the factors that led investigators to believe the deaths were the result of a murder-suicide was a suicide note that was several pages long.

But Sharal Harper, Sharon Al-Shimmary's mother, questioned if the note was really written by her daughter.

Investigators recovered several handwriting samples from the mother and children from inside the house and compared them to the suicide note.

"We do believe that is the mom's handwriting on the note," Jaroscak said.

As for any possible inconsistencies in the handwriting of the suicide note compared to Al-Shimmary's earlier writings, Jaroscak only noted that, again, investigators were waiting for the results of toxicology tests.

In addition to going through a drawn-out divorce, Harper said her daughter still was grieving from the death of Joshua, her 3-year-old son, of influenza-A, in 2005.

"She was very depressed over Josh's death," Harper said.

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