Update: Sheriff’s Office confirms shooting that left 3 dead in Carmichael was murder-suicide

A triple homicide that deputies found Saturday afternoon in a Carmichael townhouse was confirmed as a murder-suicide, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said.

Agency spokesman Sgt. Amar Gandhi said deputies found the bodies after being called to the upstairs residence on the 5700 block of Shadow Creek Drive about 3:30 p.m. for a welfare check.

“Deputies got in (to the home) and, unfortunately, discovered three adult victims deceased, all by gunshot wounds,” he said.

Gandhi told reporters in a Sunday morning update that homicide detectives confirmed a husband had shot and killed his wife and another male inside the upstairs residence of the Oakwood HOA complex before turning the gun on himself. Sheriff’s officials had yet to make an identification on the second male found inside the home, but neighbors had suggested that the second victim was an 18-year-old believed to be the couple’s son.

The three victims were expected to be identified by the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office in the days ahead.

Homicide detectives took over the investigation Saturday afternoon after the grisly discovery that had shocked many neighbors, who said they weren’t aware of the ordeal until deputies had arrived to cordon off the driveway.

Gandhi said there was no history of calls from the address, adding that the neighborhood was typically “quiet.”

More than a dozen neighbors, standing out in the rain around the home for hours with chaplains provided by the Sheriff’s Office, said they had not heard gunshots and that such violent incidents were unusual for their block. The last one, many recalled, was a similar incident in which a husband and wife were found dead in a murder-suicide a few houses away in 2015.

Few other details about Saturday’s incident or the people slain were known.

Archived radio dispatches reviewed by The Sacramento Bee indicated that a family member had called deputies when she had stopped by the home to check on the female victim. According to dispatchers, the woman had recently had a stroke and the two men were expected to be away on a camping trip.

Once the woman and a neighbor were able to enter the 3-bedroom upstairs unit, according to the police audio, they found the wife shot and killed in a bed and the husband in a chair with a weapon nearby. A deputy later radioed the second man who was gunned down had been discovered behind a locked door.

The residents of the complex spoke with sadness about their neighbors in “Apartment 4,” indicating the victims were a husband and wife and the adult son. They said the family had been “good neighbors” and had three small dogs.

“It’s going to be hard,” said Gladys Myers, who spoke of the victims by name. Myers said the man and woman were familiar faces to the residents in the row of two-story townhomes, a block west of Manzanita Avenue.

She said the husband had stopped by three days before to fix her computer. “He was always helpful,” Myers said.