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This article was published 2/4/2018 (904 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

STEINBACH — Guns and mental health issues are being linked to the suspicious deaths of a father and adult son in Steinbach over the weekend.

Police were not commenting on the investigation but a man who knew the two deceased men, Lyle Beeching and his son Mark, for more than a decade agreed to speak to the Free Press if he wasn’t publicly identified.

He said Beeching’s wife Margaret and their youngest son Michael returned to their home in Steinbach Saturday afternoon to a horrific discovery. Sometime Friday night or in the early hours of Saturday morning, Lyle Beeching, 54, and son Mark, 25, were both found dead. At least one gun was involved, the source said.

"It boggles the mind," said the man, who said he was alarmed to learn that a gun, likely a hunting rifle, was kept in the home where Mark, the oldest son, had been dealing with mental health issues. There had been trouble there close to six years ago involving police, the source said.

Neighbours canvassed by the Free Press Monday said they didn’t hear gunshots overnight Friday, but a gun was involved, the source maintained.

He said he was not aware of recent incidents involving the family. Mark reportedly did not work outside the home or attend school but shared a passion for tinkering with vehicles with his father, the source said. Lyle Beeching at one time worked for Manitoba Infrastructure but the Free Press could not confirm if he was still employed there at the time of his death.

Mark, the source said, did not like to socialize or be with crowds.

On the Easter weekend, Mark and his father stayed home while his mom and younger brother Michael attended a function and were away until Saturday afternoon. At 2 p.m., RCMP said they were called to the cul-de-sac called Parkwood Cove in the southeast corner of Steinbach, 65 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg.

The RCMP would not confirm the identities of the 54-year-old dad and his 25-year-old son or how they died, saying only that their cause of death is suspicious. In a short news release issued Sunday, the Mounties said they’re not searching for other individuals or suspects and there is no threat to public safety.

Police spokesman Rob Cyrenne said Monday that the RCMP in Manitoba do not confirm the names of victims. Cyrenne said he doesn’t expect the RCMP will release more information on the investigation until later this week.

Several people at the Tim Hortons outlet closest to the Beeching home, and at the Chicken Chef restaurant in downtown Steinbach, said they’d heard of the tragedy but didn’t know the family.

"It’s terrible," said one young woman inside Tim’s.

On Monday, police tape surrounded the home on Parkwood Cove and several of the vehicles parked in the yard on the cul-de-sac.

An RCMP officer sat in a cruiser outside keeping an eye on the place but police were not providing more information on Monday.

The source who talked to the Free Press on the condition of anonymity said he thought people should know some of the circumstances surrounding the suspicious deaths in Manitoba’s third-largest city, which has a population of nearly 16,000. "This kind of thing doesn’t happen here."

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca