Colorado authorities have identified the man who allegedly killed his wife and two of their children before killing himself in an apparent murder-suicide over the weekend as 55-year-old Christof M. Kreb, a local gun store owner and competitive shooter. Sheriff’s deputies discovered the four bodies following a 911 call from a child inside the home who told the dispatcher that one of his siblings wasn’t moving.
Police identified the victims as Kreb’s wife, Yvette Siegert Kreb, age 50, and two of their eight children, Felicity and Barrett Kreb, 13 and 9. They were found dead in the sprawling Colorado Springs house by police shortly after 10 a.m. Saturday. Authorities withheld their identities until Monday afternoon, in order to first make official next-of-kin notifications, Lt. Deborah Mynatt of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office told The Daily Beast.
First responders descended upon the home, including officers from neighboring departments, fire department personnel, and a SWAT team. Residents within a two-mile radius were ordered to shelter in place and stay away from their doors, windows, and exterior walls for several hours while investigators secured the scene, stated a press release from the sheriff’s office, which said there is no longer “any known threat to the community” and that the investigation is ongoing. Police have not released details about what Kreb’s motive might have been, and the manner and cause of death have not yet been made public.
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Yvette Kreb previously worked as a nurse and had been making and donating face masks for the community during the pandemic. Christof Kreb owned a gun store in the area called Specialty Sports & Supply. Reached by phone on Monday by The Daily Beast, the couple’s 22-year-old son, Tristan Kreb, declined to comment, saying the family had hired a communications firm that would be releasing a statement at some point.
Kevin Hamblin has lived next door to the Krebs for the past three years in an affluent part of town called Gleneagle. Although he and his wife didn’t know them well, Hamblin, 54, said they had interacted with Christof and Yvette a handful of times and often saw the Kreb kids, five of whom were adopted from China, playing in their yard.
“For us, it was shocking because it was our next-door neighbor—we wouldn’t have suspected anything like that,” Hamblin told The Daily Beast. “It’s always a tragedy when young kids are involved… I don’t understand how parents could harm their children.”
Several members of the Kreb family are competitive shooters: Christof and one of his young sons have competed together, according to a page on the USA Shooting Team’s website that has now been removed; daughter Morgan Kreb, a freshman at the U.S. Air Force Academy, is a star member of the school’s rifle team and won a bronze medal at last year’s Olympic Air Rifle Trials; and Morgan, who has said she would like to become a fighter pilot, recently began teaching her 9-year-old brother to shoot at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
“It’s a great sport and one of the few sports that your Olympians and beginners shoot next door to each other,” Yvette Kreb said in a May 2020 interview with USA Shooting that was also taken down on Monday.
Five of the Kreb children were born with various forms of dwarfism. One is also legally blind, and one had both legs amputated.
On Facebook, one acquaintance remembered Yvette Kreb as “a very special and dear friend,” who was “ always available to answer a question or concern.”
“But more importantly you taught us all how to fight for our kids,” wrote Lynnea Hameloth, who was unable to be reached on Monday. “We all supported you and when you mess with one Mama Bear you mess with us all. We are a strong, tight knit community and today our hearts are just breaking for your family. Rest In Peace my sweet friend. Know you were much loved and we will be praying and thinking about those who are left behind. Forever.”
