Yet another horrific act of family violence has resulted in the death of four family members which reportedly stemmed from an Orange County California child custody dispute. Reportedly, authorities have indicated a woman has killed herself and three other family members, including two young children, in what may have started as a child custody dispute.

Reportedly, investigators are still trying to piece together events that led to the shooting deaths of a grandmother, her daughter and two granddaughters inside a million-dollar home in San Clemente, California on Monday, December 14, 2009. Child custody papers and court documents show that the mother had lost custody of the two youngest children/victims hours before the violence shattered a gated community. Orange County Commissioner Thomas Schulte was the family law judge or commissioner involved in the Orange County Superior Court child custody case. Investigators reportedly still don’t know which woman carried out the suspected murder-suicide, but each of the four died from a single gunshot wound, said Jim Amormino of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. The girls’ father was ruled out as the killer, he said.

Recently in September 2009, Brian Benedict, 35, was accused of shooting his ex-wife Rebecca Benedict Clarke to death during an argument over child custody of the couple’s four year old son at UC Irvine. Benedict is awaiting trial. Orange County judge Nancy A. Pollard was the family law judge involved in the child custody case that resulted in the UCI shooting which also included a controversial ruling where UCI slaying suspect was ordered to more than double child support payments.