The three Willabus boys, Padriac, Damani and Deion along with their stepmother, Dianne, 32, were reportedly killed by their father, Ian, a CNN International freelance news writer and former Guyanese broadcaster, in Atlanta, Georgia last Saturday.

The father also shot himself dead.

Pastor of the Church, Sherlock Delph recalled meeting the boys when they visited the church with their aunt in December, prior to their moving to Atlanta to stay with their father and stepmother.

An e-mail to his congregation and friends, seeking financial assistance read:

"Brethren,

Last Christmas, I met three brothers, Paddy, Deon and Damani Willabus, aged 10, 5 and 3 respectively.

They were passing through New York and stayed with their uncle and aunt who brought them to church. Everyone loved them immediately; they were so young, innocent, eager and happy.

Although they had just come from Guyana and did not have the benefit of the full rehearsal season, they were there among the children presenting the Christmas program.

On January 5, they went to Atlanta to be with their father. This week, less than one month later, the news reached us that they were brutally murdered, shot, reputedly by their father.

Those of you in the Atlanta area would have seen it on the television and in the press.

`Paddy' had a bullet that went through the palm of his hand and his temple.

The police report that he died attempting to fight for his brothers.

A concerned co-worker of his father, not seeing him at work led the police to the home, apparently three days later, to discover the father, his new wife and the three boys dead of gunshot wounds.

It is believed to be a murder/suicide case.

The uncle is a full time student and the aunt, recently graduated, is on the first weeks of a new job. They have the responsibility of preparing the bodies for transportation to Mahaicony, Guyana for burial, and must pay all funeral expenses within the next week. They need financial help...."

According to Pastor Delph he is making arrangements to borrow the needed cash, to advance to this family, in anticipation of a major response from the community and is appealing to everyone to give whatever they can to help.

Cheques can be made payable to The Jamaica Queens Wesleyan Church, with a reference 'Paddy Willabus', at 120-33 230th Street, Cambria Heights, NY 11411.

A tax deductible receipt will issued to the senders, the e-mail added.

Dianne Willabus had told a friend she was afraid of her husband and that he had threatened to kill her and himself, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper said this week.

"She said she didn't want to tell [her family] because she didn't want them to be worried," Shalmeen McCutchen, 27, a former co-worker, told the newspaper.

She said the two were having marital problems. "She had found out he had cheated on her," McCutchen said.

Dianne Willabus, who worked as a front desk manager at the Hilton hotel in downtown Atlanta, moved into McCutchen's Snellville home for a few days, but eventually returned to her husband "because he told her he had bought a gun," McCutchen said.

McCutchen said Ian Willabus had shown up at his wife's job, threatening her, and had been escorted out by hotel security, the newspaper said.

Ian Willabus was a former GTV news anchor and announcer with the Guyana Broadcasting Corporation.

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.