Parents, 2 children and 3 dogs found shot to death in suburban Chicago home as police search for killer
A couple, their two children and three dogs were found fatally shot Sunday in a suburban Chicago home. Police are not investigating the incident as a murder-suicide and they are searching for the killer, CBS Chicago reports.
The bodies were found about 8:40 p.m. in Romeoville by officers sent to the home by concerned relatives of the victims to conduct a well-being check, Romeoville Police Deputy Chief Chris Burne told reporters Monday.
The victims were believed to have been shot between Saturday night and early Sunday, Burne said. The deaths are being investigated as murders, he added.
The adults were identified as Alberto Rolon and Zoraida Bartolomei. The names and ages of their children were not immediately released.
"A member of the family did not show up for work at 6 a.m. Sunday and did not respond to phone calls throughout the day," Burne said. "Family members became concerned."
While at the home, crime scene technicians were in and out of the home taking photos, and several brown and pink bags were removed from the home, CBS Chicago reported.
A computer screen and part of a window was taken from the scene, the station reported. Police have not released any details on a possible suspect.
Neighbors told CBS Chicago the victims moved in just a few months ago. They were also a mystery to their neighbors – who said they kept to themselves, and were only ever briefly seen outside.
"Kind of unsettling for the block," said Carol Love.
Love lives next door. She was home during the shootings, but says she – like many people on the block – did not hear anything at all, despite living only a few feet away.
"None of the neighbors really knew, and the officers couldn't, of course, tell us at that point," Love said.
"We hear the gunshots from the shooting range, two miles away. We can hear those nonstop," said another neighbor. "But not this, no."
Neighbor Lynn Phillips, who did not want her face shown, said she's lived on the block for nearly two decades.
She said she's never seen officers swarm her neighborhood like she saw Sunday night.
"It's devastating to me, absolutely devastating that a young family has been murdered," Phillips said
Romeoville is about 30 miles southwest of Chicago.
