Double Murder-Suicide Rocks Affluent NJ Community

MONTGOMERY, NJ — Three people were found dead with gunshot wounds inside a Montgomery home on Friday and authorities say they suspect it was a double murder-suicide.

Montgomery Township police got a call requesting a welfare check Thursday afternoon for a home on Wild Azalea Lane.

Officers went to the home but were unable to contact anyone inside and then began investigating where the residents were, Somerset County Prosecutor John P. McDonald said.

Shortly before 6 p.m. Friday, officers were able to get inside the home. When they got inside, they found two dead women in two separate bedrooms of the home.

Both women appeared to have suffered gunshot wounds, according to McDonald.

A dead adult man was also found inside the home with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, McDonald said.

The man reportedly was found with a gun.

Medical personnel from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, Somerset, pronounced all three people dead at the home.

The investigation includes detectives from the Montgomery Township Police Department, the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit, the Crime Scene Investigation Unit and medical investigators from the New Jersey Northern Regional Medical Examiner’s Office.

A postmortem examination is scheduled through the Northern Regional Medical Examiner’s Office to positively identify the victims and determine the cause and manner of death.

The identities of the dead had not been released pending positive identification by the Medical Examiner’s Office.

The investigation remains ongoing, and no further information will be released at this time, according to the announcement.

Anyone with information relating to the investigation is asked to contact the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit at 908-231-7100 or the Montgomery Police Department at 908-359-3222 or via OPS Tips.

Information can also be provided through the Somerset County Tip Line at 1-888-577-TIPS (8477). All tips will be kept confidential.

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