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In the two months since five members of a Springville family were found dead in their home, their extended family has begun going through the home and trying to piece together what caused the deaths of Benjamin and Kristi Strack and three of their children.

Family spokesman Bob McGee said that as family members were cleaning up the Stracks' home, they found a concerning note from 14-year-old Benson Strack, one of the three children who died.

"It was a letter written to a very close friend," McGee said in an interview this week with The Tribune. "Somebody that he cared for deeply. It was written two days before the incident. In that letter, it was clear he was expecting something to happen."

McGee, who is the uncle of the Stracks' lone surviving son, 18-year-old Janson McGee, said the family now believes mental illness was a factor.

Springville police suspect foul play — the bodies of the family were found in the master bedroom of their home in September, covered in bedding, a cup of colored fluid sitting next to each victim.

McGee said his family hopes the tragedy can help bring awareness to mental health issues and start a dialogue within families. Family members often miss the warning signs of mental illness, he said, writing off someone's behavior as just being "quirky."

"Nobody in the family was a mental health professional," McGee said. "Nobody was trained or informed for what to look for."

Though the family believes mental illness played a large role in the September deaths, McGee said they are awaiting the official police investigation to conclude how the family died and why. He said that even months later, they still aren't sure what happened that night.

"These were two people who we knew loved their children," McGee said. "Who were, in many ways, normal happy people, who spent time with their family and loved music. They were real people. It's clear to us, at least, that they suffered from mental illness and that's what contributed to this tragic event."

Springville Lt. David Caron said earlier this week that police are still waiting on medical examiner reports and expect to release their findings sometime after Thanksgiving.

On Sept. 27, Janson McGee, who had been out of the house, returned that evening. When he could not open the door to the master bedroom, he called his grandmother, Valerie Sudweeks, who forced the door open to reveal the family's motionless bodies.

Ben and Kristi Strack were in their bed, with their children — 14-year-old Benson, 12-year-old Emery, and 11-year-old Zion — arranged around the bed.

Officers noted that the placement of the bodies suggest someone had to position them after they died, and an officer wrote in an affidavit that "it is probable that these deaths were not accidental or natural in any way."

Officers found in a trash bag a number of empty containers for medications, including 10 empty boxes of nighttime cold and flu medicine and two empty boxes of "generic benadryl." Police also found empty bottles of liquid methadone, "dispensed from a drug treatment clinic," officers wrote. Some of the empty bottles were labeled with future dates.

Police also found pill bottles, a pitcher of red juice, a purple bucket of yellow liquid, a towel with a red substance on it, empty sleep aid boxes and a baggie of marijuana.

Twitter: @jm_miller