Pablo Josue Amador's South Miami-Dade home was a warm, comforting place where neighbors stood outside, listening to the laughter of his son and daughters.

Music drifted out the windows in late afternoon as the kids practiced their instruments together. Neighbors would bring their own children over for piano lessons.

The only hint Wednesday that something sinister loomed inside is written on his daughters' MySpace and Facebook pages.

''Crying/hurting inside. Don't know how to deal. Not even gonna try attempting anymore,'' Amador's daughter Beula ''Bea'' Beatriz Amador, 20, wrote on Facebook at 1 a.m. Wednesday.

It isn't clear what upset her. But within five hours her father, a former opera tenor; her mother, education director at the University of Miami's Project to Cure Paralysis; and two younger sisters would be found dead in the home in the 16000 block of Southwest 98th Court.

Miami-Dade police say Amador, 54, shot and killed wife Maria Joy, 47, and two daughters, Priscila, 14, and Rosa, 13, shortly before 6 a.m. Son Javier, 16, called 911 and ran from the home unharmed. Bea, a student at the University of Miami, was not home.

Investigators found a gun in the house. They did not release a motive Wednesday, but the daughters' social networking pages suggest Amador's children were troubled.

''I have gone through so much and yet I still try to stand tall, because this whole world is coming down on me, and me blocking it hurts more and more,'' Priscila wrote on MySpace.com. ``That's why I don't care anymore.''

Pablo Josue Amador was a musical director, arranger and vocalist for Los Galileos, a six-member ensemble that included his children. The group performed in dozens of churches around South Florida since 2001, according to a post on www.private lessons.com.

On his site, Amador wrote that he sang tenor with the Greater Miami Opera chorus, now the Florida Grand Opera, and on occasion at Kendall United Methodist Church.

He began his studies at the Alejandro Garcia Caturla Conservatory of Music in Havana and completed his degree in voice performance at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, N.Y., according to the post.

Neighbors in Palmetto Country Club Estates said they often heard his children practicing for performances in their home. The murder-suicide stunned them.

''Things always seemed very harmonious. That's why I'm totally in shock,'' said Soraya Peer, who lives across the street.

On Sunday, she couldn't help but listen to the sounds of the Amador children as she raked fallen leaves in her front yard.

''So much laughter came out of that house,'' she said. ``The last I heard from all of them was that lovely laughter.''

Neighbor Claretha Allen, 41, said she often took her children to the home, where ''Mr. Josue'' taught piano.

''I can't imagine what happened in that house,'' she said.

The news spread quickly to friends and teachers.

Erin Verrire, 15, left class early Wednesday and went to the family's home. She said she attends Coral Reef High School with Javier, who was talking with investigators and a victim witness counselor Wednesday morning.

He had recently made the chamber orchestra for viola, she said.

''His father always wanted him to be in tune and play well,'' Erin said. ``How something like this could happen, I don't know. He didn't deserve it.''

At Southwood Middle School, where Priscila and Rosa were students, crisis counselors were helping grieving students. They are expected to be there the next two days, said John Schuster, a district spokesman.

UM President Donna Shalala released a statement of support for Maria Amador, an employee since 1995, and Bea Amador, a sophomore pianist majoring in music therapy at the Frost School of Music.

''We can never replace all that Bea and her family have lost, but as individuals and as a community we can offer our love, sympathy, and strength to her and her brother, Javier, in this hour of unfathomable loss,'' Shalala wrote.

Other colleagues weighed in. ''Maria came to work every day with the purpose of educating people about spinal cord injury and helping to move our scientific discoveries to the clinic,'' wrote W. Dalton Dietrich, scientific director of the center. ``When people called the Miami Project to ask questions about paralysis, Maria was the point person.''

A man who said he was Pablo Josue's brother came by the family's home Wednesday but declined comment. Other friends and family turned to Facebook and MySpace to grieve.

On Rosa's MySpace page, cousin Lourdes Amador left these words:

``Rosita what can I tell you my love. Rest in peace my angel. I am sorry for what you suffered. I love you.''

Miami Herald staff writers David Ovalle, Evan S. Benn and Andrea Torres contributed to this report.