Parents, 2 Kids Dead After Suspicious Fire in New Jersey: Prosecutors

Two parents and their two young sons died after being found in a second-floor bedroom by firefighters who had responded to the home after getting 911 calls about a blaze that someone had apparently set in the home, authorities say.

Prosecutors say the couple, 29-year-old Amanda Morris and 35-year-old Lyndon Shane Beharry, and their two sons, ages 4 and 7, were pronounced dead after the flames at their home on Joline Avenue in Long Branch were extinguished late Tuesday.

Authorities say that all four were found in the same second-floor bedroom and all fire damage was confined to the second floor. The fire doesn't appear to be accidental because several blazes had been set throughout the home, authorities said. After the family was discovered, investigators found that all four people had injuries that appeared to be unrelated to the fire, officials say.

Authorities say it's not clear who started the fire, nor was it known whether the family died from the flames or from the other injuries. Investigators added they are not ruling out murder-suicide as a potential cause for the deaths. A neighbor said the husband and wife had a major argument Tuesday night, though the nature of that argument wasn't clear.

A medical examiner will determine how the family of four died. 

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Police officers were the first to respond to the scene, but heavy smoke and flames kept them from entering the home.

"They heard that people may be up there, so they tried to get into the house and do whatever they could for the people who were there," said Jason Roebuck, Long Branch's director of public safety.

No other injuries were reported and there was no damage to other homes.

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"We are all mourning the loss of our children today," Michael Salvatore, superintendent of Long Branch schools, said in a statement. "While thousands of children are preparing to enter schools tomorrow, our hears and prayers will be with the children that didn't have the opportunity."

Prosecutors say that Lyndon Beharry is a 16-year veteran of the Long Branch Department of Public Works.

"He was an excellent mechanic and a very good-natured person," department director Fred Migliaccio told the Asbury Park Press. 

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