Police Investigating Tilden Deaths

Correction Appended

Friends and relatives of the Berkeley family found dead Monday are grieving as police investigate what they are saying was likely a murder-suicide that resulted in the death of a couple and their two children.

Kevin Morrissey, 51, his wife Mamiko Kawai, 40, and their two daughters, Nikki and Kim “Lena” Morrissey, 8 and 6, were found dead Monday in a parking lot in Tilden Regional Park after sustaining gunshot wounds to the head, police said.

A .357 revolver registered to Morrissey was found lying next to his body, while what appeared to be a suicide note was found in his pocket, police said.

The one-and-a-half-page typed letter alluded to financial problems. Police said it contained an apology to those who would respond first to the scene. The letter had also been mailed to family members and friends, said East Bay Regional Park District spokesperson Shelly Lewis.

Police said they discovered the bodies at approximately 7 p.m. after responding to reports of illegal fireworks.

“The officer gets there, sees the car in the parking lot, goes down to check it out, and he spots two adult bodies in the rear of the car,” said East Bay Park District Police Sgt. Timothy Anderson. “Unfortunately, he sees the two kids in the back seat with gunshot wounds.”

There was no evidence of a struggle at the scene, Lewis said.

Police searched the family’s North Berkeley home Tuesday and are continuing to conduct interviews as they try to uncover more details.

“They’re just trying to figure out why (Morrissey) did it, Lewis said. “There’s really not a lot of questions as to if he did because of the note and the way the crime scene was.”

By all appearances the family had seemed happy, said Margaret Lim, Nikki’s third grade teacher at Cornell Elementary School in Albany.

“They were just really wonderful, kind, very generous people,” she said.

Lim was with a group of teary-eyed children yesterday adding handmade cards to the candles and flowers in front of the family’s empty home.

Third-grader Madeline Lawrence was with Lim yesterday as she remembered her good friend, Nikki.

“She was very nice and she helped me with my math homework sometimes. She was a very nice friend,” she said.

Madeline’s mother, Deena Lawrence, said her daughter was just at Nikki’s house for a sleepover Saturday night.

The couple had thrown a birthday party for Nikki on Sunday, Lawrence said, although her ninth birthday was not until July 10, according to neighbor Abbott Foote.

The family moved to their house on Northside Avenue approximately three years ago, according to Foote. He said Morrissey worked long hours at Aura Skin Care Center, which the couple operated together.

“Sometimes he wouldn’t get home from the office until 1 (a.m.) and then he’d leave at 8 (a.m.) for work again,” Foote said.

Foote also said Morrissey had told him he used to work for the Central Intelligence Agency, something Lewis said police have also been told.

A spokesperson for the CIA said he could not confirm whether or not Morrissey had been employed by the agency.

Before opening the skin care center, Kawai had worked for approximately seven years as a family practice doctor at Albany Family Practice, said Alta Bates spokesperson Carolyn Kemp.

The couple took a financial risk in opening the skin care center, said family friend Amy Ambrose, adding that she never thought the financial concerns were particularly serious.

“He would say, ‘It’s kind of hard, it’s a struggle,’ but they had real faith that it was going to work out,” she said.

Ambrose said she struggles to believe that Morrissey killed his family, especially over financial worries.

“I just can’t see that it was that simple, I just think there had to be a more powerful reason,” she said. “It must have been some bad situation where he was afraid his family was going to get hurt.”

Correction: June 25, 2007

Thursday’s article “Police Investigating Tilden Deaths” incorrectly stated that the couple operated a business called Aura Skin Care Center. In fact, the business is the Aura Laser Skin Care Center. The Daily Californian regrets the error.

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