Man Slays Wife, Self, Police Say : Shootings: Officers believe marital dispute led husband to plan murder-suicide.

A 30-year-old Santa Ana man, armed with a shotgun and a handgun, fatally shot his wife Sunday and then took his own life following a domestic argument, police said.

The body of Pangfouga Erica Chang, 27, was discovered with several gunshot wounds to the chest in a bedroom of the couple’s single-story home. Her husband, Gary Chang, was lying dead nearby with a single gunshot wound to the chest, police said.

Police Sgt. Dick Faust said investigators are trying to determine what led to the apparent murder-suicide, which police believe the husband had planned following a marital dispute.

Faust said a relative who discovered the bodies a few minutes after the 12:55 p.m. shooting had become suspicious after the husband asked another relative to take his three young children to their grandmother’s home in Huntington Beach.

Shortly after the unidentified relative left the house with the couple’s two daughters and their son, Chang shot his wife several times with a .25-caliber handgun, Faust said. He then used the shotgun to fire a shot into his chest. Police found both weapons in the bedroom, Faust said.

After the shootings, investigators cordoned off the Changs’ cream-colored tract home in the 700 block of S. Huron Drive on a cul-de-sac. Officers went door to door to ask neighbors if they had heard the gunshots or knew about the family’s domestic problems.

Some neighbors said they did not know about the murder-suicide until the police told them what had happened.

“I didn’t believe it at first,” said Donald Markham, who lives two houses away from the Changs. “They are such a congenial couple, they seemed to be happy with each other.”

Markham said the Changs moved into the neighborhood five years ago, adding that the husband spent a great deal of time working around the house.

Gary Chang worked as a janitor in a neighborhood school while his wife was a records clerk, police and neighbors said.