A neighbor with a house key discovered three bodies inside a Lake Murray home Wednesday morning after the family’s 11-year-old daughter failed to leave for school.
The neighbor, who had been entrusted with the key to pet sit for the family, entered the residence on Boulder Lake Avenue shortly before 8:20 a.m. And found the couple and their daughter dead, according to San Diego police. The girl had not emerged for her usual school routine, prompting the neighbor’s concern.
The husband and wife were found dead inside a bedroom, while their 11-year-old daughter was discovered in a separate room, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. A firearm was involved in all three deaths, police confirmed to CBS 8.
The neighbor told authorities she had heard “loud bangs” coming from the home the previous night. Investigators are now examining the deaths as a possible murder-suicide, though police have not disclosed who may have fired the weapon or what preceded the tragedy.
Authorities said they do not believe there is any ongoing threat to the surrounding community. The identities of the three family members have not yet been released by officials.
The $1 million home sits in the Lake Murray neighborhood, a residential area in San Diego where the family had lived long enough to establish trust with a nearby resident willing to care for their pets. The neighbor’s routine check, born from concern over a missed school departure, turned into a grisly discovery that has left investigators piecing together the final hours inside the house.
Police have remained tight-lipped about the specific circumstances, including the timeline of when the shots were fired and whether the “loud bangs” reported Tuesday night directly correspond to the fatal injuries. The involvement of a single firearm across three deaths in separate rooms raises questions investigators have not yet answered publicly.
The case has drawn attention to the quiet California neighborhood, where a concerned neighbor’s ordinary act of checking on a child led to an extraordinary crime scene. With identities withheld and motives unexplained, the tragedy remains under active investigation by San Diego authorities.