A German man killed his wife and three children before taking his own life, leaving a note that said he feared being jailed for faking a Covid-19 health pass, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
All five bodies were found in the family's home in Koenigs Wusterhausen outside Berlin on Saturday, Brandenburg state prosecutors said.
The father, 40, said in the note that he had secured a fake coronavirus vaccine pass for his wife.
But her boss saw through the fraud and planned to investigate, Cottbus prosecutors' spokesman Gernot Bantleon said.
"The father expected that he and his wife would be jailed and their children taken away," Mr Bantleon said.
Investigators believe the man killed the children, aged 4, 8 and 10, and his wife, 40, then killed himself.
Neighbours called emergency services after seeing the bodies in the house. Post mortem examinations have so far revealed only gunshot wounds to the head, prosecutors said.
German authorities have repeatedly warned about the spread of fake Covid-19 vaccination certificates, in a country hit especially hard by the latest coronavirus wave compared to its neighbours.
