An Alleghany County man shot and killed his three daughters as they slept, muffling the gunshots with a pillow, before fatally shooting himself in the family's home, authorities said.

Those who knew Edward F. Sims Jr. said he was a family man who rarely missed his oldest daughter's softball games. On Saturday afternoon, neighbors saw him playing outside with his youngest girl. To them, he seemed happy.

Later that night or early Sunday morning, the 41-year-old Sims shot each of his girls once in the head with a .380-caliber handgun as they lay in separate bedrooms at their home on Jonestown Road, authorities said. Then he shot himself in the head. Authorities discovered the bodies Monday morning.

"If anything can be said about this, at least it had to be instant," said Alleghany County Sheriff Dale Muterspaugh.

Authorities said they had not established a motive, and they declined to say whether Sims left a note.

There was no prior evidence that he suffered from mental illness and "no indication of criminal misconduct in recent years," Muterspaugh said.

Sims' wife, Karen Sims, 36, left him a week ago and moved to Clifton Forge, authorities said.

The oldest girl, Britney Sims, 17, was a senior at Alleghany High School who played varsity softball and hoped to attend college, said her aunt Belinda Newton. She was nearly 6 feet tall with dirty-blond hair and blue eyes.

"When she hit home runs, they weren't just over the fence, they were way over the fence," said softball coach Danny Keene. "She was probably a college-bound player."

Amber Sims, 14, an eighth-grader at Clifton Middle School, played basketball and was trying out for the school's volleyball team, said county schools Superintendent Robert Grimesey. She had dark brown hair and eyes like teardrops, Newton said.

The youngest was Morgan Sims, 8, a third-grader at Mountain View Elementary School who enjoyed reading and went by the nickname "Mo Mo." She liked to play with her cousins and especially loved her mother, Newton said.

"She was a baby," Newton said. "She looked up at her sisters. She wanted to be like them."

Edward Sims had a job at a lumber company in Clifton Forge, but stopped working a month ago when he broke his ankle riding a dirt bike, Newton said.

Newton did not wish to discuss her sister's separation from Edward Sims, but she said that he had never before acted with physical violence toward his wife or children.

"She's feeling really bad right now because she trusted him," Newton said. "She trusted him with their girls."

Neighbors saw him go for a walk Saturday along their narrow country road. He left to pick up Britney Sims at her new job at Kmart in Covington, said neighbor Linda Kemper, 52.

"He was out there just having a good old time," neighbor Lisa Tucker added. "I didn't see his demeanor change."

A third neighbor, Kim Brookman, said she didn't hear gunshots but "the dogs were carrying on really, really bad" between 2:30 and 3 a.m. Sunday.

Karen Sims called authorities Monday morning and asked them to check on the family because she hadn't heard from the girls in a few days, which was rare.

Alleghany County sheriff's Sgt. Stan Bush went to the home, in the southern portion of the county, about 7:30 a.m. He forced his way into the locked house after he saw two of the dead girls through windows.

Kemper said she got sick to her stomach when she first learned that her neighbors had been dead in the house all that time.

Leaning on a wobbly wooden railing outside her house, Kemper watched her grandchild and two other children climb onto a nearby trampoline.

"That's what makes you want to cry," Kemper said, "because Morgan loved the trampoline."

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