WEEKS BEFORE THE MASSACRE, HIS PARENTS TOLD HIM TO LEAVE. THEN HE CAME BACK.
Family members say there had been “many red flags” before Alan Smith allegedly returned to the home where his parents, sister, grandmother — and four children — were gathered for dinner.
He had reportedly been living there for years. He was unemployed, increasingly isolated, and had recently been asked to move out. So what happened in those final weeks — and what pushed a family already seeing warning signs toward a night of unimaginable horror?
The more investigators and relatives reveal, the more disturbing the unanswered questions become.
What did the family know? What did they fear? And was the warning everyone missed hiding in plain sight? 👇
For weeks before eight members of a Montana family were killed at a Sunday dinner, relatives say there were warning signs surrounding the man accused of carrying out the massacre.
Alan Smith, 44, had been living with his parents in the Billings-area home for years. He was unemployed, socially isolated and, according to relatives, had become increasingly difficult to live with.
Then, several weeks before the killings, his parents asked him to move out.
On Sunday evening, Aug. 23, Smith returned to the family home while relatives were gathered for dinner.
By the end of the night, eight members of his family — including four children — were dead. The house had been set ablaze, and Smith himself died after suffering a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The circumstances have raised a deeply uncomfortable question now spreading across online communities and among people following the investigation:
How many warning signs can exist inside a family before anyone realizes the danger has become potentially catastrophic?
Authorities have not publicly established a definitive motive. But details emerging from relatives and local reporting are beginning to sketch out the troubled period that preceded the killings.
A man living in his parents’ home at 44
According to a family member who spoke with The Associated Press, Smith had been living with his parents in Montana for years before the deadly shooting.
Brad Ireland, whose former wife and two children were among the victims, identified Smith as the gunman.
Ireland told AP that Smith had recently been asked by his parents to move out.
That detail is now one of the most closely examined pieces of the story because of what happened afterward.
Smith returned unexpectedly to the home Sunday evening, when family members had gathered for their regular dinner.
He allegedly opened fire, killing eight relatives before setting the residence on fire and ultimately dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The victims spanned four generations, from a 92-year-old grandmother to a 7-year-old girl.
Among them were Smith’s parents, his grandmother, his sister and four children.
The scale of the killing has transformed what might otherwise have been viewed as a private family conflict into a devastating example of domestic violence with an enormous human toll.
Relatives say the warning signs were already there
One of the most striking revelations has come from people who knew Smith and his family.
Relatives described Smith as a socially isolated man who spent much of his time alone. The New York Post, citing family accounts, described him as a “hermit,” while AP reported that relatives said there had been numerous warning signs before the killings.
According to family accounts, Smith had difficulty maintaining employment and had become increasingly isolated.
Those details have generated intense debate because they appear, in hindsight, to form a troubling pattern.
But hindsight is important.
A person being unemployed, living with parents, socially isolated or struggling with relationships does not automatically indicate that the person will become violent.
Millions of people experience some combination of those circumstances without ever hurting anyone.
The question investigators and experts will ultimately need to answer is whether there were additional behaviors — particularly threats, escalating violence, access to weapons or specific indications of intent — that might have signaled an imminent danger.
So far, authorities have not publicly released such a complete profile.
The argument that changed everything?
The decision by Smith’s parents to ask him to leave the home has become one of the most discussed details of the case.
According to Ireland’s account, Smith had been asked to move out only a couple of weeks before the killings.
Then came the Sunday dinner.
The timing has naturally prompted speculation that the dispute over housing may have played a role in the violence.
But investigators have not confirmed that.
Police have characterized the incident as a family disturbance and said the attack was not random. That suggests investigators believe the victims were targeted because of their relationship to Smith rather than being randomly selected.
It does not, however, establish precisely why Smith decided to attack.
That distinction is becoming increasingly important as social media attempts to fill in the missing pieces.
Reddit is already asking the uncomfortable questions
Online discussions have focused heavily on the apparent warning signs.
In a Reddit discussion about the killings, one commenter summarized the emerging picture bluntly:
“A 44 year old living with his parents, jobless, that got into fights with his elderly parents. Red flags galore.”
Another commenter questioned the circumstances surrounding Smith’s living situation and the decision by his parents to make him leave.
The discussion illustrates how quickly the public is attempting to reconstruct the events leading up to the massacre.
But there is another side to that reaction.
Some commenters have pointed out that the early lack of information resulted in people online directing suspicion toward the wrong family member.
That is a warning in itself.
The Internet is very good at connecting fragments.
It is much less reliable at determining whether those fragments actually prove anything.
What does “many red flags” really mean?
The phrase has become particularly powerful in coverage of the case.
Family members have indicated that there were warning signs before the killings. But the public still does not have a complete list of what those signs were.
That leaves several important questions unanswered.
Was Smith making threats?
Had he previously become violent?
Was there a history of domestic disputes?
Did anyone believe he might hurt himself or others?
Were authorities ever contacted about him?
Did the family consider him dangerous, or simply difficult to live with?
Those are very different scenarios.
At present, publicly available reporting does not establish answers to all of them.
That means it would be irresponsible to take a general description such as “red flags” and turn it into a detailed narrative that investigators have not confirmed.
What can be said is that the family appears to have recognized enough tension to ask Smith to leave the home.
And within weeks, the same home became the scene of an eight-person massacre.
The Sunday dinner that became a killing ground
The setting adds another disturbing dimension.
According to family accounts, Sunday dinners were a regular tradition.
On Aug. 23, relatives gathered at the home.
Smith unexpectedly returned.
The family had no apparent reason to believe that the dinner would become a deadly confrontation, according to the accounts that have emerged.
The victims included children who had gathered with their parents and relatives.
The 12-year-old Charlotte Ghekiere was among those killed. Family members say Charlotte called 911 during the attack, attempting to summon help from inside the house.
That detail makes the case even more difficult to comprehend.
The family was not simply caught in an unexpected public shooting.
The attack unfolded in a home where relatives were gathered together, and at least one child understood enough of what was happening to call emergency services.
Then the house burned
The shooting was followed by another mystery: the fire.
Police arrived after a 911 call at approximately 6:01 p.m. and encountered an active and rapidly escalating scene. The house subsequently became engulfed in flames.
Investigators have not publicly established all the circumstances surrounding how the fire started.
That has created a second wave of online theories, with some users speculating that the fire may have been intended to destroy evidence or prevent rescue efforts.
There is currently no public evidence sufficient to establish those theories as fact.
What is known is that the fire severely damaged the crime scene, making the investigation considerably more complicated.
Authorities have been working to recover evidence and reconstruct the sequence of events.
Smith’s behavior before the killings is now under a microscope
The emerging portrait of Smith is likely to receive increasing scrutiny as investigators continue working.
Relatives have described him as isolated and unemployed. Reports also indicate that he had struggled to maintain work and had spent significant periods living with his parents.
The fact that his parents had recently asked him to leave suggests the household relationship had deteriorated to some degree.
But that still leaves a major gap.
What happened between “you need to move out” and the massacre?
That period may prove crucial to understanding the motive.
Did the conflict escalate?
Was there a specific confrontation?
Did Smith make threats?
Did something happen immediately before he returned to the house?
Or was the decision to move out only one part of a much longer personal crisis?
Investigators have not publicly answered those questions.
The danger of reconstructing a motive too early
The case has already become a magnet for online speculation.
On Reddit, users are examining everything from Smith’s living arrangements to his personality and employment history. Some are attempting to understand the case through the broader concept of a “family annihilator,” while others are debating whether the reported warning signs could have predicted the violence.
But there is a fundamental problem with hindsight.
Once a tragedy happens, ordinary behaviors can suddenly appear sinister.
Someone who spends most of his time alone may seem threatening after a massacre.
Someone who cannot keep a job may suddenly be viewed as unstable.
An argument with elderly parents may appear like an obvious warning.
But none of those details, standing alone, establishes an intention to commit mass murder.
The more significant question is whether there were specific, actionable warnings that authorities or family members could reasonably have interpreted as an imminent threat.
That information has not yet been fully disclosed.
A tragedy that raises questions far beyond one family
The Montana massacre has also become part of a broader discussion about domestic violence and mass killings in the United States.
AP reported that the killing was among the mass killings recorded in the country this year and noted that many such incidents have stemmed from domestic disputes.
That context makes the Montana case particularly significant.
Unlike a random attack, family annihilation often unfolds against a background of relationships, grievances and escalating personal conflict.
Those dynamics can be difficult for outsiders to see.
They can also be difficult for relatives to interpret while they are happening.
The people closest to a troubled individual may recognize that something is wrong without believing that the person is capable of killing an entire family.
That may ultimately be one of the central lessons of the Montana case.
What investigators still need to determine
For now, the motive remains unresolved.
Investigators will need to reconstruct Smith’s movements, establish exactly what happened inside the home, determine how the fire began and examine the circumstances surrounding the reported family conflict.
They may also seek to establish whether there were previous incidents involving threats or violence that could provide a clearer picture of what preceded the attack.
The answers could change how the public understands the case.
Perhaps the reported “red flags” will prove to have been part of a clear escalation.
Perhaps they will reveal a more complicated family situation that does not fit neatly into the narratives already circulating online.
And perhaps some of the theories spreading across social media will ultimately prove completely wrong.
For now, one fact remains impossible to ignore:
Smith was reportedly asked to leave the family home only weeks before eight of his relatives were killed there.
That does not explain the massacre.
It does, however, provide one of the most troubling pieces of the puzzle.
The question now is whether investigators can determine what happened during those final weeks — and whether the warnings that relatives say they saw were merely signs of a troubled family relationship, or something far more serious that no one recognized until it was too late.
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