Yesterday afternoon, just two days after the sudden and unexpected closure of the popular Loleta Bakery, the business’s co-owner, Peter Van der Zee, was arrested for making criminal threats, and his stepdaughter says the threats were directed at his own family.

Van der Zee ran the bakery and café with his wife, Jeannie Van der Zee, and two stepdaughters, Taylor and Linnea Hill. In a phone conversation this afternoon, Linnea Hill said that after yesterday’s events the family has decided to part ways with him.

“It’s been heartbreaking,” she said, but things have come to a head. “The safest thing for us to do is to not be in contact with Peter,” Hill said.

She said that Peter Van der Zee had been prescribed “heavy duty” medications that, when combined with alcohol, fueled her stepfather’s gradual deterioration. “The combination of everything together has brought down one of the most beautiful people ever,” Hill said. “This whole process of this chemical makeover has really changed him.”

Asked if the family would press charges, Hill said the decision is up to her mother, who has left the county to stay with other family members. As for the business, Hill said that the family is open to selling the bakery, though they’re not quite ready to deal with the details of such a transaction.

For now they’re focused on regrouping and breaking the “sad cycles” that the family has been caught up in. “We still love Peter,” Hill said, “but we have to walk away from the badness and start fresh.”