I am not sure what I think anymore. At first, I most definitely thought that the cartel probably had something to do with the deaths. Just the way they were taken out alone, made me think organized crime. Now, I am leaning towards hitman/hitmen being sent by someone else to do the deed. To me, it seems like this is probably not the first time that the suspects involved have carried out a mass killing in this fashion. From the beginning, I noticed that it would have to have been calculated, carefully planned. It was not done sloppily.
Unfortunately, someone probably was involved with the wrong people and the entire family had to suffer (regardless if they were directly involved or not!)
And, to piggy back on previous posts, if two older male victims (Gary and Chris Sr., correct?) were severely beaten- well, that just shows you who the DIRECT target was.
It wasn't mentioned that any of the other victims were beaten. Or, maybe, these two victims were the only ones that were putting up a fight? Someone had mentioned that it may be possible that they KNEW that something bad was going to happen... or possibly on alert? Maybe they were waiting for the attack and weren't caught off guard or sleeping.
However, if they knew of possible grave danger, I would think they would have relayed the message to the rest of the family? Maybe, they thought that their family would not be in danger.
Just speculating!