Suspect in California murders kills himself

A man suspected of murdering three members of a family in California has killed himself as police closed in on him.

The body of Reynaldo Rodriguez was found about three hours after Los Padres National Forest rangers saw him running from a vehicle.

Police recovered the body face down in an embankment with a wound to the head.

A pistol was discovered next to the body.

Simi Valley police and county sheriff's deputies had been looking for Rodriguez for three days.

Police believe Rodriguez targeted the family of a young woman with whom he had once had a relationship.

The discovery of his body came after authorities revealed that Rodriguez had wrongly believed that the woman, Maria Rios, 24, had given him a blood disease.

Rios wasn't at home when a gunman walked into the family home and opened fire, killing her daughter, Shantal Rios, 4; brother Ricardo Calderon, 12, and grandmother, Esperanza Martinez, 80.

In a TV interview Ms Rios, holding a photo of her dead daughter, said Rodriguez "was just a friend, he was never my boyfriend."