FORKS — Two children slept in their home until a voice from an amplified bullhorn outside awakened them.
Moments later, the young children ran out of the home, and SWAT officers — one of whom had been shouting into the bullhorn — went inside to make a grisly discovery:
The children’s parents were dead.
Longtime Forks residents James Robert Grant, 49, and his wife, Brenda Marie Grant, 46, were found dead in their home at about 11 a.m. Monday as the result of what authorities believe to be a murder-suicide about five hours before.
Investigators believe that Grant first shot his wife in their bed before shooting himself, Clallam County Sheriff’s Detective Lyman Moores said Monday night.
Their two children, a girl and a boy not named by Moores, were sleeping in another room in the G Street home at the time.
Bullhorn awakens children
The boy, 11, told police that his sister, who is between 4 and 6 years old, heard a bullhorn used by police investigators trying to communicate with their father.
The children saw the scene in their parents’ bedroom before running outside, Moores said.
The standoff began earlier Monday when a friend of James Grant’s reported a distraught text message from him around 6 a.m., Moores said.
“The text message said something to the effect of, ‘You’ll hate me. Please take the two kids and raise them right and take good care of them,'” Moores said.
Police summoned
“Because of that text message, the guy called the Forks [Police Department] and called his wife to go check on the house.”
Then the friend, who Moores did not name, called the despondent James Grant back and spoke to him, Moores said.
On the phone, Grant again indicated his intention to kill himself and his wife.
When the friend’s wife arrived at the house, Forks police were already outside and heard a gunshot — apparently the last of three shots fired.
Because officers didn’t know who was alive and who was not — and if there were any hostages — police took a standoff stance, Mayor Bryon Monohon said.
Clallam County Sheriff’s Detective Tom Reyes was called in as lead negotiator and attempted to contact the Grants for about five hours while police waited for the State Patrol SWAT team to arrive from Tacoma.
SWAT team arrives
The team arrived at about 10:55 a.m. — about the same time the children ran outside.
When the team entered the house, they found the couple dead in the bedroom of gunshot wounds to the head.
Forks Police Chief Lloyd Lee also was assisted by Clallam Bay Corrections Center’s Crisis Negotiation team, LaPush Fish and Wildlife officers, National Park Service rangers and state Department of Natural Resources law enforcement officers.
Brenda Grant, whose maiden name is Justus and a member of a longtime West End family, was a lifelong Forks resident who worked at Forks Community Hospital, Camille Scott, hospital administrator, confirmed.
Her brother, Scott Justus, is a basketball coach at Forks High School.
James Grant was a corrections officer at Clallam Bay Corrections Center.
He was officially hired June 2, had just completed training and officially started work only last Tuesday, Chad Lewis, Department of Corrections spokesman, told the Peninsula Daily News.
Before working for Corrections, Grant had worked in logging for a variety of employers.
Moores said an autopsy will be done on the bodies to confirm the two were killed by the .22-caliber Magnum Single-Six revolver that was found at the scene.
“As far as the investigation goes, there is no mistake to the event that took place,” Moores said.
Suicide note
“We did find a suicide note that was written by James, and I’m not going to disclose the details of that note, but it did indicate that he was going to take their lives.”
The children will likely be placed with either family members or friends, but those decisions will be handled by the state Department of Social and Health Services, Moores said.
“There were several family members and friends who came and said they were willing to take them, but we don’t make those decisions — we allow DSHS to do that,” he said.
The husband and wife were well-known community members.
“This is a big shock to the community — this is a small community, and these people have been around a long time, so there is a lot of concern,” Moores said.
“My heartfelt and deepest sympathy goes out to the children and the family in this tragic situation.
“It is really hard on everyone — the family, the friends.
“It is hard investigating this type of crime, and we really empathize with the loss.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
