Five deaths are called suicides

Orange County Sheriff’s Department homicide investigators have concluded that all five members of a successful family of Turkish immigrants committed suicide earlier this year at their upscale San Clemente home, but they still have no idea why.

The dead were Manas Ucar, an engineer and former Syracuse University professor; his wife, Margrit, who once owned a Newport Beach jewelry store; their 21-year-old twin daughters, Grace and Margo, who this year earned bachelor’s degrees at UC San Diego; and the twins’ 72-year-old grandmother, Fransuhi Kesisoglu.

An autopsy determined that the young women and their grandmother died from overdoses of prescription medication, including the painkiller Vicodin, and that Margrit Ucar shot her husband in the chest before shooting herself in the head, said Dan Salcedo, a sheriff’s homicide investigator.

The family did not leave a suicide note, and investigators found no indication of financial, medical or marital problems, Salcedo said Wednesday. The twins were found on a bed, their grandmother on a chaise longue and their parents in a closet. Each of the victims was dressed in black.

Investigators searched the home, reviewed the family’s computers and interviewed friends, relatives and professional colleagues but closed the investigation without determining a motive.

“I wish I had some answers, especially for the family,” Salcedo said.

It’s most likely that the twins, their grandmother and father each ingested large doses of prescription medication before the mother shot the father and then took her own life, Salcedo said. Manas Ucar had lethal amounts of medication in his body but died from the gunshot wound, the investigator said.

The victims had been dead about three weeks before concerned relatives visited their home in Sea Pointe Estates and made the grim discovery.

Investigators determined that the family last entered the gated community May 3. Their bodies were discovered May 25. The family was well off financially. A Porsche Cayenne was parked in the driveway.

Manas Ucar, 58, worked as a traffic accident reconstruction expert, Salcedo said. He earned master’s and doctoral degrees at Syracuse University in New York. Margrit Ucar, 49, formerly owned a jewelry store at Fashion Island. Their daughters, graduates of San Clemente High School, worked as interns at a psychological clinic in San Diego County.

--

stuart.pfeifer@latimes.com