Portraits of a Family

Besides the details Jacquelyn Pick wrote to a judge about her husband's drug use and abusive ways, some of the most moving information we gathered during our reporting on the Torrance murder suicide was the killer's own family Web site.

Stephen Pick, who committed suicide after shooting to death his 5-year-old son and mother-in-law and wounding his wife, boasted like any normal proud papa would of his kids on his Web site www.mykidsrule.com. You look at their life through their photographs and it all seems so normal and happy. Hospital pictures with beaming family members after the births of Tyler and Nicole, momentous milestones and fun adventures.

But when you take a moment and look at this beautiful family, and realize the tragedy that's befallen them, it can stop you in your tracks. That's what happened to me, and it was only with a heavy heart that I continued doing what I had to do - telling their story in the hopes that, maybe, some troubled addict somewhere will see something familiar and get some help. Before it's too late.

Everyone here at the Daily Breeze wishes the Pick family our deepest condolences.