Pills with warning found at Lake Peekskill murder-suicide scene

State police who are investigating the double murder-suicide of an Indian Point engineer, his wife and daughter say they found a bottle of a prescription sleep aid in the family?s Lake Peekskill home.

News 12 Staff

Feb 22, 2007, 10:44 PM

Updated 6,271 days ago

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Pills with warning found at Lake Peekskill murder-suicide scene
State police who are investigating the double murder-suicide of an Indian Point engineer, his wife and daughter say they found a bottle of a prescription sleep aid in the family?s Lake Peekskill home.
Steven Lessard, 51, strangled his wife, Kathy, and 14-year-old daughter Linda in their home last week. Lessard then bled to death after stabbing himself in the groin with a steak knife, severing his femoral artery. Lessard was on medical leave from the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant after he recently began acting irrationally.
Police say they found a dietary supplement and the sleep aid Ambien. They say the prescription was in Steven Lessard?s name. Among the warnings for Ambien include possible changes in behavior, including aggressiveness and suicidal thinking. However, the warning also states an underlying psychiatric problem causing sleeplessness may actually be at fault. Police will not know if Lessard was taking the drug until toxicology tests are finished.
Meanwhile, counselors were on hand at the Putnam Valley Middle School that Lessard?s daughter attended. Even though school is in recess, some students and parents came for grief counseling. School officials say counseling will still be available after classes resume Monday.
Related Information Autopsy reveals bizarre, painful suicide for Indian Point engineer New details emerge about Lake Peekskill double murder-suicide suspect Lake Peekskill man kills wife and daughter in double murder-suicide, cops say


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