5 dead in San Clemente may have been suicides

Five family members found dead last month in their upscale San Clemente home may have all committed suicide, an Orange County sheriff’s spokesman said Wednesday.

The badly decomposed bodies of Manas Ucar, 58; his wife, Margrit, 49; their twin daughters, Grace and Margo, 21; and Margrit Ucar’s mother, Fransuhi Kesisoglu, 72, were identified through fingerprints. They had been dead at least two weeks.

“There is a possibility that all five committed suicide,” sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said.

He said investigators did not know a motive but hoped that an examination of the family’s computers would yield clues about the deaths. The bodies were discovered May 25.

Though Manas and Margrit Ucar suffered gunshot wounds, Amormino said investigators are awaiting the results of forensic and toxicology tests to determine how they died. Toxicology tests are also being performed on the daughters and the grandmother.

In May, Lt. Erin Giudice said there were no obvious signs of trauma on the bodies. Giudice said all five were dressed in black but downplayed the significance of the attire. Investigators did not believe their deaths were related to cult activity, she said.

The parents’ bodies were discovered on the first floor of their home in the gated Sea Pointe Estates neighborhood. They were lying near a closet off a master bedroom.

Two handguns were found near the bodies. The daughters were found on a bed in another bedroom. The grandmother was in a chaise longue next to the bed.

Manas Ucar is listed as a consulting engineer on a website of accident investigation and reconstruction experts in California. Margrit Ucar formerly owned a jewelry store, and the daughters were students at UC San Diego.

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hgreza@latimes.com