Thurston County Sheriff’s deputies investigating alleged homicide-suicide

An elderly couple were found dead Friday morning in an apparent homicide-suicide, according to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.

A family member found the couple just before 11 a.m. inside their trailer at the Loncar Mobile Home Park, 510 Dutterow Road SE. The mobile home community is at the northwest corner of Dutterow and Steilacoom roads, just east of Lacey.

Lt. Cliff Ziesemer said a 79-year-old woman used a shotgun to shoot her 82-year-old husband, then turned the gun on herself. The husband was suffering from a terminal illness and had been in hospice care, said Ziesemer, noting that the man died one day before his 83rd birthday.

Deputies investigated the scene Friday as family members and neighbors gathered outside the home. Someone had spoken to the couple on the phone as recently as 5 p.m. Thursday, Ziesemer said. Family members had no indication that the couple had been planning the shooting, he said.

The names of the couple have not been released.

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 11:39 AM with the headline "Thurston County Sheriff’s deputies investigating alleged homicide-suicide."