2 Die in Apparent Murder-Suicide

Authorities are investigating the apparent murder-suicide of a 3-year-old boy and a man in his mid-30s at a turnout overlooking the Pacific Ocean on mountainous Deer Creek Road on Friday afternoon.

Investigators have identified the two people but are withholding their names until they can notify their relatives.

Ventura County Senior Sheriff’s Deputy Chuck Buttell would say only that the pair are California residents, but are not from the county.

An unidentified motorist alerted Port Hueneme police about 5 p.m. to a man and a small child “covered with blood” in a car at Robyn’s Point, a turnout on Deer Creek Road, one mile north of Pacific Coast Highway in the southern end of Ventura County, Buttell said.

“We found a male in his mid-30s dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound and a 3-year-old child in a car seat in the back seat of the vehicle dead from a single gunshot wound to the head,” he said.

The man was found on the ground near the gray, four-door car. He apparently used a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun in the shooting.

Investigators discovered a suicide note in the car, but did not release details about its contents.

“It’s a suicide and the tragic part is he took the child with him,” Buttell said.