Behind the façade of a happy family life, Amanda Karolkiewicz was suffering through a marriage in which her husband cheated, and she felt trapped.
That’s the bottom line of Reddit posts the Detroit News said came from Amanda’s Reddit account.
Amanda, her husband Kristopher, and their six children died last week in what officials have said was a murder-suicide in which Kristopher killed his wife and children, then torched the family home, killing the pets who died in the fire.
Shortly before the incident, Kristopher Karolkiewicz’s remote job with the American Heart Association, where he was national vice president of sales and marketing in a division focused on CPR and first aid training and products, ended, the organization said, according to People.
Another absolutely horrific case – Kristopher Karolkiewicz shot dead his wife, Amanda, and their children, ages 5 to 15 execution style.
He lost his job, he was cheating on his wife with an intern and is found out. It was posted on social media and he murders his entire family, pic.twitter.com/dhgNOt2qrK
— Laura Richards BSc, MSc, MBPsS (@laurarichards99) July 28, 2026
Karolkiewicz worked for the American Heart Association from September 2023 until this month, when his “employment ended,” the statement read.
Are you surprised infidelity was one of the potential triggers for the horrific murders?
In a 2024 Reddit post, Amanda wrote about the community where she lived, saying “It’s like living in a Hallmark Movie.”
But the movie had several twisted subplots.
“He was divorced and older than me … fast forward ten years and five kids, he was cheating with the intern again — the same age I was when I was the intern,” Karolkiewicz wrote in 2024.
“After about a year of self-loathing, I remember crying and looking at myself in the mirror and realizing how (expletive) it was that I was the one who was living so miserably because of what he did. I finally realized that I had been the only person who has ever showed up for myself my whole entire life,” she wrote.
Karolkiewicz wrote the marriage endured for the sake of her four biological and two adopted children.
“I kept telling myself, ‘I love my kids more than I hate my husband right now.’ They have no idea — I faked it ’till we made it. We’re in a much better place 4.5 years out, but it’s still a fight to stay in a healthy place,” she wrote.
In excerpts posted by the Daily Mail, she said she eschewed her pro-life background when she became pregnant with her youngest child.
“I used to be staunchly pro-life. I birthed three boys and adopted two daughters. I was [adamant] that five kids was my max. Then I was unexpectedly pregnant,” she wrote.
She said she loved the child, but said he was the “hardest child I have had.”
“My husband will be sixty when he graduates high school. I am stretched way too thin, and am often on the brink. I have had to ask for so much help this time around,” she wrote.
“I am now staunchly pro-choice, because no one should be forced to the brink of a mental health crisis bc of failed birth control. I am loud and proud that if we ever find ourselves pregnant again I will take the abortion meds I now keep on hand in case myself or my daughters find ourselves in need,” she wrote.
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