Three dead in murder-suicide in SW Cedar Rapids

A Cedar Rapids man killed his wife and mother-in-law before taking his own life Thursday morning.

Cedar Rapids Police said 47-year-old Robert Livingston entered Linda Huber's home at 3515 Banar Dr. sometime before 6:39 a.m. and shot Huber and her 41-year-old, Ingrid Huber Livingston. Robert Livingston then took his own life.

The Livingstons' two minor children were in the residence at the time of the shootings but were not hurt, police said.

The Livingstons live nearby at 3600 Big Horn Dr. SW.

These are the first homicides in Cedar Rapids in 2014.

Police said the investigation is ongoing and many questions remain unanswered. Among them is why Livingston - whose previous criminal record amounts to a couple traffic violations - shoot his wife and mother-in-law?

Authorities said they can't comment on details of the investigation, including a possible motive.

"It's all going to be part of the investigation," Cedar Rapids Public Safety spokesman Greg Buelow said.

Buelow said investigators can't say who made the original 911 call that alerted police to the residence or what weapon was used in the killings.

Elaine Pohlmann, who lives nearby at 3527 Banar Dr., said she was good friends with Huber. Pohlman said the 73-year-old was a widow who lived alone in the middle unit of the three-unit condominium.

Huber was a retired teacher, but Pohlman didn't know where she taught, she said.

"We were just friends," Pohlmann said. "I'd go into her house and visit."

Pohlmann said Huber got frequent visits from her granddaughters - Livingston's children - and loved to garden.

"She was a very nice lady," Pohlmann said.

Wanda Ribble, another neighbor, said she met Huber once at a neighborhood gathering, but didn't know her very well. She said squad cars and police tape was a foreign sight on the otherwise calm street.

"It's a quiet neighborhood," she said. "That's why I was so shocked when I heard that this morning."

According to the website for the CR Lady Hawks Softball Club, Ingrid Livingston applied to be the club's treasurer for the 2012-2013 season. Livingston noted on the website that she was director of marketing at Highway Equipment Co. in Cedar Rapids and would be earning a master's in business administration from St. Ambrose University in Davenport in December 2012. She said her two daughters were involved in multiple extracurricular activities.

"Ultimately, as parents it's our goal to teach our children to be successful leaders, not only as members of their teams, now, but also in their lives as young adults going forward," Livingston wrote on the site.

Police released no further information.