CAIRO: A man who confessed to killing his wife and children last week said he feared that his family would have to live in poverty after leading a prosperous life.
According to local press reports, Sherif Hafez, a 56-year-old computer engineer, lost his fortune in the plummeting stock market as the global financial crisis took its toll on economies worldwide.
Hafez lived with his wife and two children, a daughter and a son, in an apartment in an upscale district in Heliopolis. After losing his life savings, Hafez said he did want his family to suffer poverty so he decided to kill them and save them the misery, local press reports said.
They were found dead on Thursday at 2 am.
He used an ax to kill his wife, 53, while she was sound asleep. He then killed his daughter, a 25-year-old ballet tutor, and his son, 28, also a computer engineer.
Hafez then cut the veins in his right wrist and leg, and lay next to his wife in their bedroom. He left the ax next to his son, who laid in a pool of his own blood for nearly 10 hours before the bodies were discovered.
Hafez was moved to a hospital by his brother-in-law and had to have two surgeries on his wrist and leg. He reportedly confessed to the murder citing the dire financial burden.
