Murder-suicide discovered in LV
Las Vegas police discovered the valley's fourth incident of murder-suicide or attempted suicide in 12 days Thursday afternoon when they walked into the home of a recently deceased husband and a wife who had been dead for possibly two years.
The man had written a letter to the department's records section, where an employee received it Thursday.
The letter claimed he had killed his wife two years ago and that he was going to kill himself, Lt. Lew Roberts said.
Shortly before 2 p.m., officers went to the home at 1516 Willowbark Court, near Charleston Boulevard and Fort Apache Road, and found the home locked.
A locksmith opened the door, and police found the man dead from a gunshot wound to the head in the back bedroom.
The wife was found in another room of the house. Roberts said he didn't know whether she had been dead two years.
"She had been dead a while," he said.
The names of the two people have not been released.
The discovery brought the number of such incidents in the valley in the past 12 days to four.
Three of those have been in the Las Vegas police department's jurisdiction.
On Sept. 5, a Texas man shot and killed a North Las Vegas woman with whom he had a relationship before turning the gun on himself. He died a few days later.
Two days later, a 51-year-old man shot and killed his girlfriend with a rifle from a second-floor landing in their northwest valley home. He called police after shooting himself in the neck and is expected to survive.
On Sept. 14, a housekeeper discovered a 29-year-old woman shot to death by her boyfriend in her home near Maryland Parkway and Silverado Ranch Boulevard. Her boyfriend was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440.
