Four-year-old Jeremy Barron was found unconscious in his bed by a babysitter on February 7, 1993, at the family home near Sacramento and was pronounced dead despite immediate medical attention. His death came after the earlier, unexplained death of his mother, Irene Barron, who was found dead in her bed on June 6, 1992. Irene was later determined to have died of asphyxiation, but the precise causes of the children’s deaths initially remained undetermined.

Jeremy’s sister Ashley, also four, was found lifeless in her bed on August 7, 1994. The series of deaths escalated when Roberta Butler, the children’s 52-year-old grandmother, was found smothered to death in the family’s Benicia townhouse on February 27, 1995. A multi-county task force from Solano and Sacramento counties then investigated the pattern of fatalities.

On July 17, 1995, Jack Barron, 33, was arrested on three counts of murder in the deaths of his wife Irene and their children Jeremy and Ashley; Roberta’s death was attributed to asphyxiation but charges in her case were deferred pending the other prosecutions. Family members said relief at the arrest followed years of suspicion. Did anyone who knew the Barron family notice changes in the household between 1992 and 1995?