Murder-Suicide Suspected in Deaths of Couple
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An aspiring actress from England, apparently despondent over the suicide of her jilted lover, may have shot her husband to death before killing herself, police said.
The body of Victoria Howden, a 26-year-old aspiring actress and model, was found in a Sherman Oaks apartment Monday after a friend told police that the woman had threatened to kill herself, said Police Lt. Richard Blankenship. Her fatally wounded husband, Charles House, 40, was dead on arrival at UCLA Medical Center. It was not clear whether House committed suicide or was shot by Howden, said Detective Paul Stewart. Howden married House in December to obtain U.S. residency status, the detective said.
Stewart said Howden was despondent over the May 8 suicide of Ronald Webb, a California Highway Patrol officer who shot himself alongside a freeway in the San Fernando Valley. Webb had asked Howden to marry him.
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