'Call 911' Sign Left In N.J. Window Where Homicide-Suicide Took Place

"Call 911." That's what was taped to the front window of a New Jersey home, according to Philly.com, before a couple was found inside Wednesday, victims of gunshot wounds in an apparent homicide-suicide.

Now authorities are investigating the deaths of a couple in their Ventnor home where police responded Wednesday after getting a 911 call.

The sign served as a frightening symbol for neighbors even though they weren't completely surprised that the couple was in trouble. And that they would put up a sign.

One man told Philly.com that the sign was part of the husband's organized manner, and that he probably wished that the bodies were found in an orderly way.

"He went into the hospital Friday and came back Tuesday," neighbor Joe Hitchner, 82, told Philly.com. "He had pancreatitis ... I know they each had been very depressed," Hitchner said.

The discovery was made around 1:31 p.m., when Ventnor police responded Wednesday to the 200 block of North Oxford Avenue to check on the well-being of the occupants, according to the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office.

Upon arrival, police found the residents of the home, Marianne Wilson-Allen, 59, and her husband Richard Allen, 60, both dead of apparent gunshots, according to the ACPO.

Detectives of the Atlantic County Major Crimes Unit and members of the New Jersey Southern Regional Medical Examiner’s Office responded, as did an Atlantic County Nurse Pronouncer, who pronounced the deaths of the victims at the scene.

Preliminary results of autopsies of the victims performed on Thursday by New Jersey Southern Regional Medical Examiner Allison Mautone determined the cause of both victims’ deaths to be a single gunshot to the head.

The manner of death of Marianne Wilson-Allen was homicide, and the manner of death of Richard Allen was suicide, according to the ACPO.

Hitchner told Philly.com he had seen the piece of paper, but he didn't know what it said until police arrived. He knew Richard Allen was having problems with his pancreas, and the couple had been dealing with the pressure of being sick, and dealing with the sound of construction noise nearby.

"It was all too much for him," Hitchner told the news organization.

The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit, the Ventnor City Police Department and the Southern Region Medical Examiner’s Office are investigating.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit at 609-909-7666 or the Ventnor City Police Department at (609)-822-2101.

Patch file photo