SAN ANTONIO – A double murder-suicide sent shockwaves through a west side neighborhood Thursday morning.
“It’s awful. It’s awful. It’s awful,” neighbor Christina Carrion said as she thought of each of the three victims.
San Antonio police say the bodies have been inside the home for days. Officers made the gruesome discovery around 8 a.m. at a house on Vale Drive off Marbach near South Ellison in the Heritage subdivision.
A trucking company out of Minnesota asked SAPD to check on a team that had not been heard from for 15 days.
Officers had to force their way inside and that’s when they found the bodies.
Investigators wore masks as they worked inside the home.
“It’s not a fresh scene,” Chief William McManus said. “They’ve been there for a while.”
When officers first arrived, the house was locked and they could hear the television.
They found the suspected shooter, a 76-year-old man, still sitting in a living room chair – dead from a self-inflicted rifle shot.
“Person had a felony conviction,” Chief McManus said. “[The weapon] was owned illegally.”
Police also found a 67-year-old woman dead in her bed and a 45-year-old man dead on the floor of another bedroom.
Outside the home, neighbors woke up a crime scene and Chief McManus reassured them they are not in danger.
"I feel more safe,” Carrion said.
But she said she’s devastated. She hadn’t seen the elderly woman for a week – and now, she knows why.
"Es triste, mucho,” Carrion says. “Of course it is. It doesn't matter the way it happens. It's very, very sad."
Officers are not releasing the names of the victims until relatives are notified.
