Another Homicide-Suicide Reported In Desert

DESERT HOT SPRINGS, CA — Two people found dead Thursday in a Desert Hot Springs apartment was apparently the result of a homicide-suicide.

Officers responded to the 66200 block of Sixth Street around 4:30 a.m. Thursday to reports of a shooting, Detective Sgt. Christopher Saucier with the Desert Hot Springs Police Department told City News Service.

Saucier said officers arrived at the residence to find a man and a woman ostensibly fatally injured by gunshot wounds.

"We believe it's probably going to be along the lines of a murder-suicide at this point," Saucier told CNS. "We don't have any suspects outstanding and we don't believe there were any other suspects at large."

The deaths will remain under investigation.

Officers closed Sixth Street from Cactus Drive to Palm Drive from around 6 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Thursday.

The Desert Hot Springs investigation follows an apparent homicide-suicide of an elderly couple whose bodies were found in their vehicle last week near Palm Desert.

Michael and Lisa Herbst, both 87, were found dead July 14 in their vehicle parked at the end of Coyote Song Way, in unincorporated Palm Desert. The two were suffering from gunshot wounds, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

The day of the grim discovery, deputies from the La Quinta Sheriff's Station had received a report of a missing married couple who, the night before, had not returned to their home at a La Quinta senior living facility. A search of the area turned up their bodies.

While no further details about the case were released by the sheriff's department, it has been widely reported that spousal homicide-suicide occurs most frequently in older people.

A report in The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law found that several factors can contribute to homicide-suicide among aging couples, including illness, perceived decline in health, depression and anxiety, among others.

The sheriff's department did not disclose a motive in the case. It's not clear which of the victims died first.

—Patch Editor Toni McAllister and City News Service contributed to this report.