Four family members found dead in Virginia home, police say

(CBS/AP) HERNDON, Va. - Police say a mother, father and two children were found dead in their home outside the nation's capital Tuesday afternoon.

Fairfax County police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell said officers were called about 10:30 a.m. and asked to do a welfare check on a home in Herndon, Va. Police entered the home shortly after noon and found the bodies of the four family members. 

Police declined to provide any identification pending notification of family. CBS affiliate WUSA reports that the man and woman were in their 50s and had two sons, one a high school sophomore and the other in 8th grade.

Caldwell would not discuss whether the case was a murder-suicide, but said that homicide detectives are investigating and that there is no public safety threat.

Jeremy Wilcox, a neighbor who lives down the street, said the family was at a community picnic Sunday and showed no signs of any problem. He said the father would frequently be on his front porch waving to cars as they passed by, and that he sometimes stuck a plow on the front of his truck to clear a path for neighborhood cars when there was a snowstorm.

A candlelight vigil will be held for the family at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the family's church, Floris United Methodist Church in Herndon.