Montana Man Identified After Eight Relatives, Including Four Children, Killed During Sunday Family Dinner

From left, Owen Ireland, Megan Ghekiere, Chloe Ireland, Charlotte Ghekiere, Adam Ghekiere, and Landon Ghekiere are shown in a photo posted to Facebook on Nov. 25, 2025. Eight family members were killed after a gunman opened fire on their Billings, Montana home and set it on fire before killing himself.Facebook/Megan Ghekiere

New details are emerging about the devastating attack outside Billings, Montana, where eight members of one extended family were killed during a Sunday dinner before the home was engulfed in flames.

Relatives have identified the suspected gunman as 44-year-old Alan Smith, the son of homeowners Dana and Barb Smith. According to family members, Smith had lived with his parents for several years but had been asked to move out only weeks before the Aug. 23 attack.

Investigators have not publicly established a definitive motive. However, accounts from surviving relatives are providing new context about tensions within the family before Smith unexpectedly returned to the house that Sunday evening.

Family says Smith had recently been asked to leave

Brad Ireland, whose former wife Megan Ghekiere and their two children were among the victims, identified Smith as the person responsible.

Ireland told the Associated Press that Smith had moved to Montana and lived with his parents for years. A couple of weeks before the killings, however, Dana and Barb Smith asked their son to move out.

Ireland described Smith as a reclusive person who spent much of his time alone in his room on a computer. Although Ireland said Smith could be verbally abusive, he said that, to his knowledge, Smith had not previously been violent. A search of criminal records in Montana and Washington also found no record of Smith having been arrested or criminally charged, according to the AP.

Ireland nevertheless claimed there had been warning signs before the tragedy, saying people had raised concerns but that those concerns were not acted upon. His comments represent a relative’s account rather than an official finding by investigators.

An unexpected arrival during Sunday dinner

Owen Ireland and Chloe Ireland are pictured in an undated GoFundMe photo.Gofundme

The family had gathered at the Smith home for a weekly dinner when Alan Smith unexpectedly returned Sunday evening, relatives said.

Those inside represented four generations of the same blended family.

According to the family’s account, the victims included Smith’s parents, Dana and Barb Smith; his grandmother, Evelyn Smith; his sister, Megan Ghekiere; Megan’s children Owen Ireland, 13, and Chloe Ireland, 7; and her stepchildren Landon Ghekiere, 15, and Charlotte Ghekiere, 12.

Authorities said the incident began as a family disturbance and was not a random attack. Dispatchers heard gunfire in the background of the 911 call at around 6 p.m., while smoke was also reported coming from the residence.

Within minutes, the emergency had become both an active shooting scene and a major structure fire.

Gunfire followed by a rapidly spreading fire

Investigators work at the scene where a family was killed and a house burned on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, in Billings, Mont. (AP)AP Photo/Matthew Brown

Police arriving at the property heard additional gunfire from behind the house shortly before flames consumed the building.

Firefighters could not immediately move in until law enforcement secured the scene. The absence of fire hydrants in the subdivision outside city limits further complicated efforts to contain the blaze, and crews continued fighting the fire until approximately 1 a.m. Monday.

Authorities eventually confirmed that eight victims had died.

The suspected gunman suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound and later died, according to investigators. The extensive fire damage has complicated efforts to reconstruct precisely what happened inside the home.

Adam Ghekiere believes his children were not expected to be there

One detail has added another painful dimension to the family’s account.

Adam Ghekiere, Megan’s husband and the father of Landon and Charlotte, was working at the airport in Billings when he heard reports of an active shooting over a dispatch radio.

He began calling members of his family before rushing across town to the Smith residence. When he arrived, the house was already burning and authorities would not allow him closer because the scene remained dangerous.

Ghekiere later said his children ordinarily would not have been expected at the home that Sunday because the family’s dinner was usually held on Fridays.

“I don’t think he expected my kids to be there,” Ghekiere said of his brother-in-law.

That belief has not been established by investigators as part of a motive, but it raises the possibility that the presence of Landon and Charlotte was unexpected.

Charlotte, 12, called 911 from inside the house

From left, Owen Ireland, Megan Ghekiere, Chloe Ireland, Charlotte Ghekiere, Adam Ghekiere, and Landon Ghekiere are shown in a photo posted to Facebook on Nov. 25, 2025. Eight family members were killed after a gunman opened fire on their Billings, Montana home and set it on fire before killing himself.Facebook/Megan Ghekiere

Amid the new information surrounding Smith and the circumstances before the attack, another detail has emerged about the first call for help.

Police confirmed to Adam Ghekiere that his 12-year-old daughter Charlotte was the person who dialed 911 from inside the home.

Family friend Jennifer Mercer said Charlotte tried to get help for her relatives and described the girl as a hero.

That call brought emergency responders toward the house as the situation was still unfolding. Dispatchers could hear gunfire in the background, according to authorities.

For Adam, the revelation has become intertwined with one of his strongest memories of his daughter. He told the AP that whenever he told Charlotte he loved her, she would answer that she loved him more.

Questions remain over what triggered the attack

While relatives have pointed to Smith being asked to leave his parents’ home weeks earlier, authorities have not announced a definitive motive connecting that dispute to the killings.

What has been established is that the violence arose from a family disturbance rather than a random attack.

The fire has also made the investigation unusually difficult. The home was burned to its foundation, leaving authorities with structural concerns as they recovered evidence and worked to establish the sequence of events.

For the surviving relatives, however, the tragedy extends far beyond the investigation. Eight people from four generations of one family were lost in a single evening — and among the details now emerging is the story of a 12-year-old girl who, in the middle of the unfolding emergency, managed to call 911 in an attempt to bring help to her family.