Police: 12-year-old finds parents dead in apparent murder-suicide on South Side

A husband and wife are dead after a domestic incident led to a murder-suicide Thursday in a South Side home, San Antonio police said. A husband and wife are dead after a domestic incident led to a murder-suicide Thursday in a South Side home, San Antonio police said. Photo: Taylor Pettaway Photo: Taylor Pettaway Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Police: 12-year-old finds parents dead in apparent murder-suicide on South Side 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

A husband and wife are dead after a domestic incident led to a murder-suicide Thursday in a South Side home, San Antonio police said.

Police said they responded to calls of a shooting in the 8600 block of Zarzamora around 8 a.m. and found two people dead inside the home. Witnesses said a fight from the night before led the 36-year-old man to shoot his 33-year-old wife before killing himself, said San Antonio Police Chief William McManus.

The couple’s 12-year-old son found the bodies, SAPD said.

“It is horrible that a relationship can sink so low that someone thinks they can resolve it with a firearm,” McManus said.

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McManus said the wife and four children didn’t stay at the home Wednesday night. On Thursday, however, she returned with her four children and a coworker to pick up some things.

When the wife went inside, the children told police they heard arguing but didn’t think much about it until the woman didn’t re-emerge, McManus said.

That’s when the 12-year-old went inside to see what was taking so long and found his parents.

“For anyone to walk into, especially a child, it was a horrifying scene,” McManus said. “I won’t even describe it, but it was a horrible, horrible scene and no one should ever have to witness that. It was a horrible tragedy.”

The children, who are between the ages of 5 and 12, were taken to police headquarters for questioning and counseling.

McManus said this was the first time police had responded to the residence and the wife didn’t have a protective order against her husband.

“There is a lot of help out there for people who want to leave a bad relationship because this is a complex issue,” McManus said. “You always hear about these ones because they are so horrific but there are so many cases of domestic violence that the public doesn’t hear about.”

McManus said investigators will be at the residence for several more hours to finish processing the crime scene.

Taylor Pettaway is a breaking news reporter and general assignment writer. Read her on our breaking news site, MySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway