Refugee Fled Violence Only to Be Killed With Her 3 Kids in US

Police release identities of family members killed in Utah
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 20, 2024 12:00 AM CST
Refugee Fled Violence Only to Be Killed With Her 3 Kids in US
Candles and other items are seen outside of a home Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, after multiple family members were found dead the day prior inside the home in West Valley City, Utah.   (Jeffrey D. Allred/The Deseret News via AP)

A Utah mother who police believe was shot and killed by her husband along with three of their children was a refugee who fled violence in Myanmar and dreamed of thriving with her family in the US, relatives said Thursday. Police believe the husband killed his family before shooting himself, and a teenage son was badly wounded. The bodies of Bu Meh, 38, along with her daughters Kristina Ree, 8, and Nyay Meh, 2, and son Boe Reh, 11, were found in their home in West Valley City, a Salt Lake City suburb, on Tuesday. A handgun was found under the father Dae Reh, 42, leading police to believe this was a murder-suicide, but no evidence of a motive has been released, the AP reports. One child, 17-year-old Sha Reh, survived being shot in the head and is hospitalized with a severe brain injury, police said.

Bu Meh, a member of Myanmar's Karenni ethnic minority, fled what her relatives described as ethnic cleansing in the Southeast Asian nation about 10 years ago. She and her small family lived for a time in a refugee camp in Thailand, then came to the United States "with little more than the clothing on their backs," the family said in a statement. She taught herself English, learned new skills and worked hard to support her growing family, achieving a way of life "far beyond the nightmare of her former country or the refugee camp," the family said. "For reasons that we cannot comprehend, her husband robbed her and their children of that security and their very lives," her family said. A crowdfunding campaign has been set up for Sha Reh.

(More Utah stories.)

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