UPDATE 10:30 a.m.: The three children who were found dead in the upscale Minnesota home have been identified as Cole Short, 17, Madison Short, 15, and Brooklyn Short, 14, according to the Daily Mail.
It's been confirmed that the family was shot dead, but authorities are still unsure who the gunman was.

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An incident where police came across a family of five, which includes three children, dead inside their lakeside home in Greenwood, Minn. has been deemed as a murder-suicide.

Police had gone to check on the family at 12:21 p.m. Thursday, following reports that no one had heard or seen from them in days, reported the Associated Press. Interim Chief Mike Siitari didn't disclose how the family died, but he noted that there doesn't appear to be any "threat or danger to the community."

The children had not been seen for a couple days in school, while the father had been absent from work, prompting the father's co-workers to ask police to check on them, Siitari revealed.

"This is a complex crime scene" that will take time to sort through, Siitari said. 

Authorities also declined to reveal the victims' names, but a notice from the father's work website, Allnurses.com, identified the family and revealed the parent's names to be Brian and Karen Short, the Star Tribune reported.

Brian, who also happens to be the founder of the site, was described as a one-time nursing student and entrepreneur who built and launched the website in the late 1990s when he couldn't find nursing-related information online.  

The notice posted Thursday night referred to the incident as "a very tragic loss for the extended families, and this nursing community," according to Fox News.

One man answered the phone at AllNurses.com but declined to comment and hung up.

The investigation for this incident is ongoing.