PEORIA, Ariz. — An 86-year-old man and a 78-year-old woman were found dead of gunshot wounds inside a Peoria home on Sept. 30, and detectives say the early evidence points toward a possible double suicide rather than a murder.
Police and firefighters were sent to a house on 83rd Lane, near 83rd Avenue and Beardsley Road, shortly before noon. A caller told dispatch a murder-suicide was about to happen. The line stayed open long enough for dispatchers to hear gunshots, then went quiet, Peoria police accounts reported by Arizona’s Family and FOX 10 said.
Officers approached with the department’s SWAT team and a drone run through the Real Time Crime Center, then went inside. Both people were dead. No one else in the house was reported hurt. By the end of the week, investigators said the first read of the evidence looked more like a double suicide than a killing followed by a suicide. The Major Crimes Unit has not issued a final finding, and police have not said who placed the 911 call or what led up to the shots.
That gap matters. A caller who warns of a murder-suicide may be one of the people inside, or someone who was told what was about to happen. Until detectives release a conclusion, neighbors are left with the scene they could see: tape in the front yard and an open garage, and two older residents dead.
Peoria’s use of a drone before entry is now a standard step when gunfire has already been heard and officers do not know whether a shooter is still inside. It does not tell the public why the shots were fired. The medical examiner and the crime-scene work are what usually settle whether each wound was self-inflicted.
Police had not released the names as of Friday’s updates. Family notification and a finalized autopsy finding typically come before those names, and before the department will say the double-suicide theory is more than a working idea.