SALEM -- Nikolay Lazukin, the man police said killed his wife and three daughters early Tuesday and then set his house on fire, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, the state medical examiner said Thursday.

The autopsy adds an additional detail to what Salem police describe as a case of murder-suicide. They've declined to elaborate on motive but friends say the Lazukins were a happy family.

Natalya Lazukin, 26, and daughters Angelica, 3, and Zoe, 1, died of gunshot wounds. The youngest, 4-month-old Sefi, was not shot but died of asphyxiation, said Dr. Larry Lewman of the state medical examiner's office.

Still unclear is what connection, if any, there may be between the Lazukin family murders and the death of 21-year-old Devin R. Matlock. Matlock's body was found about an hour before the fire was reported at 5:30 a.m., just blocks from the Lazukin home; he died of head trauma, an autopsy found.

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"We have two teams of investigators working on both incidents and they are still separate investigations," said Lt. Dave Okada, a spokesman for the Salem Police Department. "If the investigations merge at some point we will say what we truly think happened."

Matlock's mother, Colleen Matlock, said she has received scant information from police. When officers came to her door they told her that her son was dead and they were investigating his death as a possible hit-and-run.

"He wasn't hit by a car," she said, adding that the funeral director told her, "His head was smashed in and so was his face."

Firefighters found four bodies in the small, smoldering house in the 2500 block of Fisher Road Northeast on Tuesday morning. Police noticed a vehicle missing and put out an alert to law enforcement agencies to look out for the Lazukins' red Jeep.

The Jeep was found at a Comfort Inn in Cottage Grove, a little after 10 a.m. Cottage Grove police came to the front desk of the hotel just off Interstate 5 about 80 miles south of Salem.

Bikramjit Singh, a clerk at the hotel, said officers asked if anyone driving a Jeep with an Oregon license plate had checked into the hotel.

"We always ask people for their make and model of car and license plate, and we had no one check in with that kind of car," Singh said.

Minutes later, police found Nikolay "Nick" Lazukin's body inside the Jeep and called for Salem Police Department detectives, Singh said. Detectives and crime scene investigators spent about seven hours processing the Jeep, Singh said.

A records check of Nick Lazukin showed mostly traffic citations. However, court records show that in December 2005, he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was required by a Marion County Court judge to complete eight hours of anger management classes. He completed the classes in April 2006.

Friends say the family showed no outward signs of distress. Nick worked and took classes full-time at Chekemeta Community College while Natalya worked as a dental assistant.

Meanwhile, mourners continued to visit the Northeast Salem home Thursday, including Amy Walcott and Renee Thompson, who drove down from Portland.

They dropped off personalized aprons for the girls, as well as a spinning pinwheel with the names of all three girls. "Angelica, no more pain, fly with the angels," read one of the aprons. "So sorry, you are safe in heaven now," read another.

"We just felt like we had to come down and offer our condolences," Walcott said.

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