4-year-old found safe after pretending to sleep during murder-suicide, police say

BELLEFONTAINE NEIGHBORS, Mo. — Police in Missouri found a 4-year-old girl unharmed in the pre-dawn hours Friday after authorities said her father shot and killed her mother and her half-brother before turning the gun on himself, according to multiple reports.

Police found the girl still pretending to be asleep in her bedroom at her family's home in the 1200 block of Hoyt Drive, St. Louis Patch reported. She was uninjured.

Bellefontaine Neighbors police told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the girl found her mother on the floor of the family's living room after she heard gunshots late Thursday. Her father, identified as 31-year-old Dornubari Dugbor, told her to go back to her room and she complied, police said.

"She heard several shots fired after that," Chief Jeremy Ihler told the Post-Dispatch.

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Police were called to the family's home by a man who refused to give his name. He told dispatchers that they would find three bodies inside, Patch reported.

Authorities believe the call was made by Dugbor after he fatally shot his fiancee, 31-year-old Katrina Banks, and her son, 15-year-old Kevin Johnson. He then killed himself, KSDK reported.

Dugbor and Banks got engaged last month, according to the Post-Dispatch.

Katrice Noble, a childhood friend of Banks' who reconnected with the 31-year-old later in life, described her to KSDK as "very determined, very committed."

“She was determined to be the best in the classroom,” Noble told the news station, recalling their shared childhoods. “She was the student that her peers liked. She joined any activity that there was. She was that all around young lady.”

Police continued Sunday to investigate the circumstances that led to the shooting.

Authorities said the 4-year-old girl was taken to a hospital after the shooting as a precaution. KSDK reported that police planned to release her to family members.