Maryland

Family Killed in La Plata Murder-Suicide Had Friends ‘All Over The World,' Relative Says

Sunny, Sara and Kai Mann were close to each other, to their extended family and to a large community of friends from everywhere they had ever lived.

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A relative of the mother, daughter and son found murdered in their LaPlata, Maryland, home last week remembered them as a close family with a Buddhist faith that connected them to people all over the world. 

Police said the suspect, 28-year-old Andre Sales, shot and killed himself after killing his ex-girlfriend, 21-year-old Sara Mann; her brother, 18-year-old Kai Mann; and their mother, 48-year-old Sommaly Mann, known as “Sunny.”

Jovon Watson, a 23-year-old man from White Plains who was at the house for a date with Sara, was also killed. 

Sunny, Sara and Kai Mann were close to each other, to their extended family and to a large community of friends from everywhere they had ever lived.

“We’re hearing from friends and relatives in Egypt, in Dubai, I mean all over the world,” Eugene Henwood, Sunny’s brother-in-law, said. “The Lao community, the Thai community, the Buddhist community, the schools, the middle schools, the high schools, I mean, La Plata and Alexandria.” 

Henwood said Sunny was a talented cook, a doting grandmother to Sara’s two very young children, and a woman who lived her Buddhist faith by helping people.

“We did food drives, we went to different missions, to churches and to different groups, feeding the folks all over the world,” he said. 

Henwood said Kai even underwent novice Buddhist monk initiation as a tribute to his mother’s faith.

News4's Jackie Bensen reports on the crime, Jovon Watson's life and the pain of his family.

“As a monk, you shave your head and you wear the orange robe and everything. And I thought he was going to chicken out, but he went through with it,” he said. 

Sara, Henwood said, was loved and admired by her younger cousins.

“She’s so beautiful, and she just got more and more beautiful every time I saw her,” he said. 

Henwood was overcome with emotion when he talked about how loved ones have come together to arrange the triple funeral, using a GoFundMe to help with expenses and to help support the infant and the 2-year-old that Sara leaves behind.

The funeral service for the three members of the Mann family will be held Sunday.

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