The small community of Byron, Wyoming, is mourning after a devastating incident that resulted in the loss of three children.
Police believe a mother attempted to take her own life after trying to kill her children.
Tranyelle Harshman, aged 32, reportedly shot four of her children, tragically killing three, before turning the weapon on herself.
Authorities reported receiving a 911 call around 1:30 p.m. local time on Monday (February 10), where a female caller detailed ‘gunshots occurring inside her home’ and indicated her daughters had been shot.
The Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office explained in a press release: “When dispatchers asked the status of the gunshot victims the female stated that she believed them to be deceased.
“She told them two children would be located upstairs in their cribs and two would be located downstairs in their shared bedroom.
“The caller further stated she could be found in her upstairs bedroom and that she was going to do the same to herself.”
Efforts by the dispatcher to keep Harshman on the line were unsuccessful.
Upon the police’s arrival at the residence, they discovered her 2-year-old and 9-year-old daughters deceased.
A 7-year-old and another 2-year-old daughter were initially found alive, but the 2-year-old succumbed to her injuries at the scene. According to PEOPLE, all four were shot in the head.
Harshman was found with a gunshot wound to her head and was alive when police found her, but she later died from her injuries in the hospital.
The 7-year-old girl was transported to a local hospital for ‘advanced life support’ before being airlifted to another facility for further treatment, according to the release.
Byron Mayor Allen Clark addressed the media earlier this week, expressing how the community is grappling with this tragedy.
He stated (via The Scripps News Group): “When you’re in a small community like this, you know, everyone rubs shoulders with everyone. It’s just devastating.
“I just hope and pray that the family can endure and hopefully brighter days ahead. I don’t want to dwell on what has happened, we want to dwell on what is next.”
A GoFundMe page has been created to support Harshman’s husband and the father of the two youngest daughters, Cliff.
Cliff spoke to Cowboy State Daily about the harrowing event, defending his wife by stating she was not a monster and had been undergoing treatment for mental health struggles, including PTSD and postpartum depression.
He explained: “My wife is not a monster. Most people don’t understand how that affects the brain. It’s a chemical imbalance … And it can be exacerbated by trying to fix it with medication.”
He added: “This is so out of character. It’s unbelievable what had happened. We’d been getting her help, and along the way something didn’t work.
“As angry as I may be with her, I still love her — and I still lost her as well.”