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On the steps in front of the house are grave candles, a teddy bear and a bouquet of orange flowers in the sun.

The day before, behind the white facade of the apartment building, a bloody act with five dead occurred - this is the result of the investigators on Saturday.

A 41-year-old father killed four family members and then himself in Radevormwald near Wuppertal.

This is what the police and public prosecutor assume after the forensic examination of the bodies.

The motive for the act was probably the failure of the marriage.

"There are no indications of the involvement of other people," the investigators said in a short notice.

The man is said to have killed his 37-year-old wife, two one and four-year-old daughters and the 77-year-old mother-in-law with a knife shortly before 5 p.m. on Friday.

Then, according to the investigators, he set fire to the house and also killed himself with a knife - "in the same way".

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The crime was discovered by the fire brigade, who was called to the fire in the single-storey house with the gleaming white facade just a few minutes later.

After about two hours of fire fighting, the fire brigade moved away again, said a spokesman.

There was "nothing left to do".

A forensics officer investigates a fire in front of a residential building in Radevormwald

Source: dpa / Christoph Reichwein

From the outside of the house on Saturday only a few traces of soot could be seen above a window.

The windows burst by the fire were boarded up with panels and the house was cordoned off with a tape recorder.

In front of it, paving stones were piled up that were apparently supposed to be laid.

The Cologne police had formed a homicide commission on Friday evening.

Forensic agents dressed in white overalls scrutinized the crime scene.

The outside of the house was brightly lit with spotlights.

The corpses were carried out that night.

The house is on a main road on the outskirts of Radevormwald in the Herbeck district.

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Investigators said the death investigation would be discontinued if there was no new information.

Investigations against dead perpetrators are not planned.

There should be no further information about the deceased, not even about the deed and the living conditions of the family.

In the past few months there have been two comparable cases in North Rhine-Westphalia: In December, a man in Isselburg in the Münsterland is said to have killed his older daughter and his wife before he committed suicide.

He also wanted to kill the younger daughter.

She survived because she locked herself in her room.

In Rösrath near Cologne, a man killed his daughter and wife in October and then himself.