A FORMER bank executive facing trial for embezzlement beat to death his wife and the couple's four adopted children before killing himself by ramming his car into a highway sign post, police said Tuesday.

Investigators in Iowa City provided details of the tragedy which came to light Monday when the bodies of Sheryl Sueppel, 42, and the couple's children ranging in age from 3 to 10 were found in their house on a quiet suburban street.

Police said Steven Sueppel placed an emergency call to them telling them to go to the house not long before he rammed his car into the base of an overhead sign on a nearby highway. The car burst into flames and his body was not positively identified until Tuesday.

Police chief Samuel Hargadine said Sueppel left a written note and other messages behind which indicated that he killed his wife first and then the children. A baseball bat may have been used in the beatings.

Sueppel, 42, a former vice president and controller of the Hills Bank & Trust, was indicted Feb. 12 for embezzlement and money laundering and was facing trial next month.

Authorities say nearly US$560,000 was missing from the bank as a result of thefts that had occurred over several years, and records indicated he may have stolen at least in part to pay for cocaine.

The children had been adopted from Asia, with one of them only recently joining the family.