Police at the DeKalb, Atlanta, Georgia precinct yesterday confirmed that Willabus was the perpetrator of a murder/suicide.

Lieutenant Pam Kunz, a spokesperson for the department, said an autopsy report returned yesterday confirmed that the 33-year-old freelance news writer with CNN shot his 32-year-old wife and three sons to death before taking his own life.

Police place the time of death at some time on Saturday night, January 25 but the bodies were only discovered on Tuesday, after Chris Williams, a friend of the deceased couple, became concerned after Willabus did not return his phone calls and did not show up for work on Sunday, January 26th.

Williams said yesterday that he called the management of the Kenridge Apartments on Kenridge Parkway in central DeKalb on Tuesday to check on the family.

The doors of the apartment were found locked from the inside, Williams said and police were called to the scene.

When police broke down the door and entered the second floor apartment they were met with a gruesome scene - the bodies of Willabus, his wife and his three sons from a previous marriage, Padraic, 10, Damani, 5, and Deion, 3.

However, police said they had not received any recent calls reporting gunshots in the area but they have on record a call made from the apartment last December because of "a verbal altercation." An officer handled the incident with mediation, Kunz said.

The three children had only moved to the United States last Christmas to live with Willabus.

They spent the holidays with relatives of Willabus' first wife, Michelle Pierre, before moving to Atlanta with their father and his second wife in early January.

Willabus, originally of Linden in Guyana, was at one time a communications student of the University of Guyana.

He was also a flight attendant with the now defunct Guyana Airways Corporation and had contributed to the Caribbean News Agency (CANA), also now closed.

He was also an Assistant Public Relations Officer with City Hall in Georgetown.

Friends remember Willabus as a fun person who always had a quick smile and a positive word for everyone.

Williams, who worked with Willabus at CNN, said there was no indication that Willabus was depressed or had any problems that would have led him to murder his family and then take his own life.

"He seemed fine," said Williams. "They had problems in the marriage late last year but they had made up and all that was in the past. There was nothing that would lead him to do this."

Willabus was incredibly productive, using his journalistic training and skills to produce various news pieces on his homeland.

His dream was to one day convince CNN to set up a Caribbean/Latin American bureau so that more coverage could be given to the issues of the region of his birth.

It was this patriotic spirit that pushed Willabus to recently return to Guyana to cover the funeral of the late President Hugh Desmond Hoyte.

He also interviewed President Bharat Jagdeo.

Interviewed upon his return by this writer on his impressions on Guyana, Willabus voiced dismay at the escalating crime rates in the country.

Said the journalist, "I never thought I would reach a point where I would be scared to be in Guyana but I was. You had a sense of security before but that has now dissipated."

Funeral arrangements were unknown up to press time.

But family members of the deceased were expected in Atlanta yesterday to claim the bodies and begin the ghastly task of burying the dead.