Couple Are Found Dead in Home

The bodies of a man and a woman were discovered Friday in what officials believe was a murder-suicide at their Mission Viejo home.

Authorities did not release their names, pending notification of relatives.

The bodies of the two, believed to have been romantically involved, were discovered about 10 a.m. when Orange County sheriff’s deputies arrived at a residence in the 22000 block of Antigua to do a “welfare check” on a 45-year-old woman.

What they found, said Lt. Lloyd Downing, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, was her body in a downstairs room; she had apparently been beaten on the head. Upstairs, he said, investigators found the body of a 50-year-old man who had apparently hanged himself.

“The scene led investigators to come to the preliminary conclusion of murder-suicide,” said Jon Fleischman, another sheriff’s spokesman. “We believe the man murdered the woman, then killed himself.”

Neighbors said they were saddened but not surprised.

Ann Stevens, who lives next door, said she called the Sheriff’s Department twice in as many months two years ago to report loud arguing between the couple. Though she couldn’t hear the words, Stevens said, the tone of the man -- a singer who occasionally performed at a local restaurant -- “was very threatening and out of control, definitely very aggressive.”

Lately, she said, things had been quieter. “I thought, good for them because they stopped fighting. I guess it was too quiet.”

Rick Kyler, another neighbor, said that about a year ago the man sent him a letter apologizing for not being more neighborly. The letter said he was “having a rough time,” Kyler recalled, and talked about his problems with depression.

The contact, however, never went further.

In recent months, said Kyler’s wife, Pat, “the only thing you ever heard [over there] were doors opening and closing.”

Fleischman declined to release further details about the deaths.

Times staff writer Mai Tran contributed to this report.