Identical Twin Brothers Die in Murder-Suicide: Sheriff

Identical Twin Brothers Die in Murder-Suicide: Sheriff
Jack Phillips
10/30/2017
Updated:
10/30/2017

A man shot and killed his identical twin brother after they had been “fighting for about a year,” a Montana sheriff said.

“Nobody thought it was serious,” Carter County Sheriff Neil Kittelmann told People magazine.

Travis Carlson, 39, of Canton, South Dakota, was gunned down by his twin brother, Eric, 39, at 5:15 p.m. on Oct. 19, while Travis was working in rural Carter County, Montana, the sheriff said. Two workers saw the confrontation between Travis and Eric.

But Kittelmann said the workers didn’t see the shooting, but they “just went to the house and got the landowners and they called me.”

After an alert was sent out for Eric, he was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“We don’t know a reason for why that stuff happens. You don’t know that and I don’t know that,” the sheriff said.

The two brothers were memorialized at a Sunday funeral service, it was reported.

“They’re identical twins,” Kittelmann said. “I wouldn’t think the family would prefer to do it any other way.”

As MailOnline reported, Eric had at least two children, but it’s unclear if his brother had a family. Relatives didn’t elaborate on why the two were fighting.

Tributes poured in on social media after the two died. Those who knew the men described them both as “good men” who will be missed.

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
twitter