SALT LAKE CITY (TCN) — The last surviving victim of a murder-suicide involving a mother and her four children died over the weekend after suffering traumatic brain injuries.
Olivia Blackmer’s family announced on GoFundMe that the 7-year-old died Saturday, Feb. 15, at a hospital in Salt Lake City after her mother, Tranyelle Harshman, fatally shot herself and her kids. Blackmer underwent brain surgery and other procedures in the days preceding her death.
The family wrote in an update, “She fought so so hard up til the last minute! Her body and her brain had been through too much, medication helped but we reached a point where medical options were exhausted and her body only continued to get worse. She kept fighting through it all though until her heart stopped.”
On Feb. 10 at 1:30 p.m., the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office Public Safety Communications Center received a call from a woman who said her daughters had been shot, and that two were in their cribs and the other two would be in a bedroom downstairs. The caller told the dispatcher she “could be found in her upstairs bedroom and that she was going to do the same to herself.”
The sheriff’s office wrote in a news release that the dispatcher “pleaded with the female caller over the phone for the female caller to remain on the line until responding units arrived,” but the caller “stated multiple times that she could not do that and that it was too late.”
The line ultimately went dead.
Several law enforcement units responded to the home and entered, where they found a 2-year-old and 9-year-old deceased with gunshot wounds to the head and another 2-year-old and 7-year-old, Blackmer, still alive but with shots to the head. The 2-year-old died at the scene from her injuries. Officials located the caller, Harshman, with “signs of life” and began rendering aid.
Paramedics transported Blackmer and Harshman to nearby hospitals. Blackmer was air lifted to another hospital for advanced care, then taken to Salt Lake City. Harshman died from her injuries.
Harshman’s husband, Cliff Harshman, told Cowboy State Daily that Tranyelle Harshman was coping with postpartum depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression.
He shared, “My wife was not a monster.”
Cliff Harshman said Tranyelle Harshman’s actions were “so out of character” because they had been getting her help, “and along the way, something didn’t work.”
Cliff Harshman was the father of the two younger kids, while Quinn Blackmer was Olivia Blackmer and 9-year-old Brailey Blackmer’s father. Harshman’s daughters were identified as Brooke and Jordan.
The four kids were reportedly home from school that day because they had the flu.
Cliff Harshman told Cowboy State Daily, “As angry as I may be with her, I still love her — and I still lost her as well.”
