ALBERT SALVATO, The New York Times, reports:

Early on Sunday morning, the authorities say, Mr. Moody, 18, got out of bed, loaded his .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle, walked a quarter mile to his grandparents’ home and shot them to death as they made breakfast. He returned home, reloaded the rifle and went from bedroom to bedroom, shooting people as they slept, the authorities say. Mr. Moody, who was to graduate from high school that day, then shot himself.

BELLEFONTAINE, Ohio, May 30 - One hardship after another seemed to strike the Shafer family, which owned what had been one of the most pristine and prosperous dairy farms in this central Ohio community but could hardly pay its bills in recent years, say neighbors.

The 650-acre farm along Highway 47 is overgrown and produces little milk. It began to fall into disrepair about a decade ago, and then the owners, Steve and Sheri Shafer, divorced, said a neighbor, Clifford Kelly. Ms. Shafer was left with a school-age son and daughter, and the farm to run with her parents.

A dispute over an inheritance further divided the family and left them living a largely day-to-day existence and struggling to pay their property taxes, said Mr. Kelly, a longtime friend who owns the adjacent farm.

For years Scott Moody, Ms. Shafer’s son, found himself relied upon to guide the family through its mounting problems, neighbors say. But neighbors believe that the struggles overwhelmed the youth.

Early on Sunday morning, the authorities say, Mr. Moody, 18, got out of bed, loaded his .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle, walked a quarter mile to his grandparents’ home and shot them to death as they made breakfast. He returned home, reloaded the rifle and went from bedroom to bedroom, shooting people as they slept, the authorities say. Mr. Moody, who was to graduate from high school that day, then shot himself.

The authorities identified the dead as Mr. Moody; his grandparents, Gary Shafer, 67, and Sharyl Shafer, 66; his mother, 37; a friend, Megan Karus, 19; and his girlfriend, Paige Harshbarger, 14. Mr. Moody’s sister, Stacy Moody, 15, was shot twice in the neck and remained in critical condition in Columbus on Monday.

“These are the most tragic shootings I’ve seen in this county in my 31 years here, because of the sheer numbers and all the young victims,” Sheriff Michael Henry of Logan County said.

The city of Bellefontaine is about 45 miles northwest of Columbus. The sheriff’s office property abuts the Shafer farm, and deputies rushed to the home where four people lay dead after another family member discovered the bodies shortly before 11 a.m. on Sunday.

Although bleeding severely, Stacy Moody managed to make three cellphone calls to friends and a stepsister, Nicole Vagedes, the authorities say. Ms. Vagedes promptly went to the house and found the bodies.

“Oh, my God, I cannot feel my mother’s pulse. Please hurry,” she could be heard saying in a taped 911 call. “There’s one still awake,” she said, referring to Ms. Moody. “There’s one still moving.”

Sheriff Henry said the authorities continue to search for what set off the shootings. “There seemed to be no argument, no idea he was going to do this,” he said.

Neighbors stood outside their homes on Monday, watching car after car slowly pass the Shafer farm.

On Sunday afternoon at the commencement ceremony at nearby Riverside High School, where just more than 100 seniors graduated, Bernice Packmeyer, the superintendent of schools, briefly acknowledged the loss of Mr. Moody and Ms. Karus, who were members of the graduating class. “Tragedy has struck Scott and Megan,” she said.

Mr. Kelly and his wife, Mary Jane, who both attended the graduation, said the 500 or more people in the audience seemed to want the ceremony to end quickly. “It’s hardly a celebration when two of our children are gone,” Mrs. Kelly said.

Mr. Kelly said that although Ms. Shafer held a graduation party for her son on Saturday night, the youth was refusing to attend the ceremony. “I know that disappointed the family, but I don’t know if that caused the shootings,” Mr. Kelly said.

Mr. Kelly and another neighbor, Forest Davis, said they had watched the Shafer farm and its family fall apart over the years. “There’s been divorces and people remarrying, and it’s been a tragedy,” Mr. Davis said.

Mr. Kelly, 66, said he grew up with Mr. Moody’s grandparents and attended school with Sharyl Shafer. “We helped each other with farm work,” he said. “The Shafers once brought a baler up here to help me when I first moved in.”

Mr. Kelly said that Mr. Moody often worked with his grandfather, but that they could not keep up with the demanding work. “Their farm was once a showplace, and these people were well thought of,” Mr. Kelly said.

The farm was tied up in an estate battle because Mr. Moody’s great-grandmother wrote “a bad will,” Mr. Kelly said. The family turmoil, he said, seemed to change Mr. Moody from a polite young boy to an abrasive teenager.

“After a while, he seemed to have an attitude, a bad attitude,” Mr. Kelly said. “He’d work with his grandpa, but I could tell, you could not tell Scott how to do things.”

Published: May 31, 2005