Son bludgeons parents, shoots self as grandparents watch: 2 dead, 1 critical

HAYNESVILLE, La. (WGNO) -- Two people are dead and another is in a Shreveport hospital fighting for her life, after their son bludgeoned them with a baseball bat and then took his own life as his grandparents looked on.

George Burch, 55, is dead, while his wife, 51-year-old Teresa Burch is listed in critical condition at Ochsner's LSU Health Hospital. Their 20-year-old son, Dennis Bunch, was pronounced dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene.

Haynesville Police Chief Anthony Smith said police were called to a home in the 400 block of Main Street early Tuesday morning. When they arrived, they found Dennis Burch inside his grandparents' mobile home deceased with a gunshot wound in his head. Burch's parents, George and Teresa, lived in the mobile home behind the grandparents' home, and when police went inside, they found the couple alive, but seriously injured.

Because Haynesville is a small town with a population that hovers at around 2,000, Smith said police knew the victims, but if they hadn't, it would have been impossible to identify them as they were bludgeoned beyond recognition.

Smith said Dennis Burch lived with his grandparents and had been in an argument with his parents at home Monday night. After he returned to his grandparents' home, he told them he was going to go back to his parents' house and “kill everybody with a baseball bat.”

At around 3 a.m., Burch went back to his grandparents' home, retrieved a gun, and as his shocked grandparents watched, shot himself in the head.