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NORTON - At various times over the course of her difficult eight-year relationship with Robert McDermott, Elizabeth Cann had tried to break things off.

But two weeks ago, when Cann, 44, kicked McDermott, 39, out of her house at 384 Reservoir St., she went to greater lengths than before to keep him out of her and her daughters' lives, according to neighbors and police.

She changed the locks on the doors of her home, and she changed her telephone number, Detective Sgt. Brian Clark said in an interview Tuesday with The Sun Chronicle.

Yet somehow, McDermott managed over the weeeknd to get into the house, where he fatally shot Cann in her bed and wounded two of her daughters, Danielle, 15, and Brittany, 12, before turning the gun on himself in Walpole, a shocking crime that was the first murder in Norton in a dozen years.

A third daughter, Amanda, 17, was out of town when the shootings occurred. Clark said police are still piecing together the circumstances surrounding the gruesome murder-suicide, including how McDermott entered the house.

"It's very difficult to tell what happened without the suspect telling us what happened, and we don't have that," he said.

He declined to speculate on how McDermott committed the shootings.

"There is no indication that he planned this, but we're looking into that," Clark said.

A statement purportedly from the McDermott family was e-mailed to The Sun Chronicle and other newspapers Tuesday.

The statement read: "This whole affair is a tragedy of the highest order. Our prayers are for Danielle and Brittany, and certainly for Amanda who must cope with everything. We grieve for the loss of Robert McDermott and Elizabeth Cann and wish to be allowed to express this grief privately."

It was not possible to determine the authenticity of the statement.

Autopsies were scheduled Tuesday at the state Medical Examiner's Office in Boston to officially determine cause and manner of death. Results were not available as of Tuesday night.

However, Clark said that even once the autopsy is completed, investigators may not be able to determine the exact time of Cann's death, though it can provide a range of time during which the murder occurred.

Police have said they believe the shootings took place sometime within a day of the three victims being discovered by the girls' father, Cann's ex-husband, about 9:15 Monday morning. Cann's body was found in her bed in her second-floor bedroom. Clark was unable to say whether she was asleep at the time. Brittany and Danielle Cann were found critically wounded nearby. Both remained in critical condition late Tuesday night at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence.

Clark said one daughter was found in the bedroom with her mother and the other was found nearby in a hallway, according to witness and police accounts. Clark declined to elaborate further.

He also said the family dog, said to be named Cocoa, was found shot dead at the rear door of the house.

All were shot with what authorities said was a six-shot, black powder revolver. Clark said the weapon was an antique, which will make it "difficult to find out where it came from."

He said police will check all available records in an effort to find out more about the gun, including any reports on stolen weapons.

As an antique, the weapon falls under an exemption in the gun control laws, and so McDermott did not need a license for it.

Amanda Cann was in Florida at the time of the shooting. When her calls home went unanswered, she called her father, Wayne Cann. He and his second wife were the first people to discover the bodies.

Clark, an 18-year veteran of the police force, compared the devastating impact of the murder-suicide on the town and the schools to the death of Corey Anderson almost a decade ago.

In 1999, Corey, a 9-year-old boy, got lost in a snowstorm looking for his dog. He was found dead after an exhaustive 72-hour search.

Like that tragedy, Clark said, this week's murder-suicide has "hit the whole community. The girls are active in the schools here in town, and they are active in the Camp Finberg programs."

Clark said school and YMCA officials have offered counseling to students and the police department has offered the services of its school resource officer.

Elizabeth Cann had an eight-year on-again, off-again relationship with McDermott and obtained a restraining order against him in July 2005, only to let it lapse two months later.

Friends and neighbors said Cann was a wonderful woman and mother, but they thought McDermott was odd, an alcoholic who had frequent run-ins with neighborhood kids, whom he accused of forming a gang.

Clark disputed the accounts of Canns' neighbors, who said the police were called frequently to the Reservoir Street home.

Police records indicate they were called to the house seven times since 1992, when Cann and her former husband first bought the house. The reasons for the calls varied, and not all would seem to be related to problems between Cann and McDermott.

They included a break-in, a vandalism complaint, one call to report an auto accident, one domestic problem in July 2005, a family dispute last year and a well-being check on the family just last Friday.

After the carnage was found Monday, local police asked for assistance from Mansfield police to block roads. A Mansfield detective and an Attleboro detective, as well as state police detectives from the Bristol County District Attorney's Office assisted local police and detectives at the crime scene.

Clark said police resources were stretched handling the incident because of ongoing traffic tie-ups on East Main Street and this week's high-profile Deutsche Bank Championship at the Tournament Players Club of Boston on Route 140.

But the incident occurred before the tournament was in full swing, when police would have needed even more resources, he said.