Joliet Murder-Suicide: Identities Released By Coroner

JOLIET, IL — The Will County Coroner's Office on Thursday afternoon released the identities of the four people who were killed at a house on Joliet's east side. Coroner's officials classified the deaths as resulting from a domestic incident in the 500 block of Whitley Avenue.

The four decedents are: Brandyn Lee, 34, Jacquelon Gaskin, 28, and two small children, Gianna Lee, age 6, and Giovanni Lee, age 1. Autopsies will take place on Friday, the coroner's office informed the news media. All four died as a result of the domestic violence incident that happened Wednesday night, coroner's officials relayed.

The Joliet Police Department got to the call at 10:19 p.m., and officers found a man, woman and two children, all dead, on the second floor of the residence, police reports show.

"It appears at the time to be a murder-suicide," Joliet Police declared in a press release issued Thursday morning. "No one else is being sought in reference to the incident at this time."

Joliet Police stressed that a team of detectives is working on the case to determine the events surrounding the violence.

On Thursday morning, Chicago's ABC-7 reported that the four people who are dead are: Jacquelon Gaskin, 28, her two children, Gianna Lee, 6, and Giovanni Lee, 1, and the children's father, Brandyn Lee.

According to the ABC interview with Gaskin's mother on Thursday morning, she told the television station that her daughter's relationship with Brandyn Lee was on the outs.

"She was trying to break away from that and that was the trigger," Rusha Brooks told ABC. "That was the last bit of control to take everyone away not just himself."

The victims who died in the Wednesday night tragedy were relatives of long-time Will County Board member and local clergyman, Rev. Herb Brooks. WJOL reported that Jacquelon Gaskin was his granddaughter and Gianna and Giovanni were Brooks' great-grandchildren.

Joliet's last murder-suicide also involved multiple young children as victims: the Reed Street tragedy of Aug. 28, 2017.

At a ranch house in the 400 block of Reed, 41-year-old Celisa (Lundborg) Henning fatally shot her twin daughters, Makayla and Addison, multiple times in the head, police said. Afterward, she put one bullet into her own head and died, according to the Will County Coroner's Office. The twin girls were just a month shy of their sixth birthday.

In that crime, the Joliet mother left behind a suicide letter, police said.

Anyone struggling with mental health can get help by calling the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, visiting this website or by texting HOME to 741741.