nvestigators believe a Graham-area man killed his five children and then himself Saturday after learning his wife was leaving him for another man, a Pierce County sheriffs spokesman said today.

This is our theory of what happened, spokesman Ed Troyer said. Were still working to lock down everybodys account of what happened and when.

Authorities believe the man, identified by a family member as James Harrison, shot his five children, ages 7 to 16, to death early Saturday in their home in the 20400 block of 135th Avenue Court East, between Graham and Orting, east of Tacoma.

The fathers body was found later Saturday in an SUV near the Muckleshoot tribal casino. The man, believed to be a security guard at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, apparently shot himself to death with a rife, investigators said.

Troyer gave this account of what is believed to have happened: Unable to find his wife Friday night, the father and his 16-year-old daughter, the oldest of the five children, left home to look for her. They found the woman and a man at a convenience store on Auburn Way South about a quarter mile from the casino.

The woman told her husband she was not coming home, and was leaving him to be her new boyfriend, the man with her at the store.

He was devastated, Troyer said of the father. There was confrontation there.

The father and his daughter then returned home. He was upset and started contacting family members, Troyer said. Investigators believe he later killed his children and returned to the area near the convenience store looking for his wife. His body was found near the store, Troyer said.

The father had multiple weapons, Troyer said. Each of the children, whose bodies were found in one of three bedrooms or the bathroom at their home, had been shot more than once, Troyer said.

Auburn police have custody of the fathers SUV and sheriffs investigators are seeking a warrant to search the vehicle, Troyer said.