ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. — A Mandeville mother shot and killed her daughter before turning the gun on herself, according to the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office. It happened around 8:30 Tuesday morning at their home on Lane Street and Dupre near Mandeville.
The St. Tammany Parish coroner identified them as Tara Book, 43, and Brittany Buras, 23.
The STPSO said Book called 911 Tuesday morning and told the dispatcher she shot her daughter and was going to shoot herself. The dispatcher then heard a gunshot over the phone and both women were found dead in their home.
"We lived here three years, they moved here about two years ago. We didn't talk too much but every time we saw the mom we waved, she waved back," Brent Raccuglia who lives a few houses down said.
While none of the neighbors we spoke with knew them well, they told us the mother and daughter appeared to have a healthy relationship.
"Seemed like the mother was a caring mother taking care of her daughter. Something we never saw coming, never," Raccuglia said.
According to neighbors, there was another suicide on their street several years ago.
"She (a neighbor) said it was that house, they had a suicide five years ago in that house," Raccuglia said. "Same house."
Statistics show St. Tammany Parish has an alarmingly high suicide rate, but the coroner’s office said it has been falling in recent years.
"It really opens our eyes. We don't expect this to happen over here. We moved from the Westbank to be in a nice neighborhood, better schools, and it happens across the street," Raccuglia said.
The coroner's office will perform autopsies on both women Wednesday.
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