Police Release Victims' Names In Possible Murder-Suicide In N.J.
KINGWOOD TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Police are investigating the deaths of three people in northwestern New Jersey.
Andrew Wierzbicki, 62, and his wife Wanda Wierzbicki are believed to have been shot to death by their son Gabriel Wierzbicki, 26.
Authorities believe that after shooting his parents, Gabriel turned the weapon on himself.
Hunterdon County Prosecutor Anthony Kearns III says the bodies were found late Saturday morning at a single-family home in Kingwood Township. He said state police went to the home after a 911 caller reported seeing a body there, and troopers soon found all three victims.
"The caller found something that they thought was not right. Police responded. Upon their investigation they found the remains of three bodies," Kearns told WCBS 880's Alex Silverman.
Sources tell WCBS 880 that troopers found one of the dead outside of the home, near the garage. The two other victims were inside.
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All three victims were adults - two males and one female. Area residents said a married couple and their adult son lived at the home.
Investigators suspect the gruesome scene was the result of a double murder-suicide.
"It appears on the surface that a husband and his wife died at the hands of their son, who then killed himself. Firearms were involved," said Kearns.
The home remained cordoned off early Saturday night, as investigators and troopers continued to comb the scene for evidence. Kearns said the area around the home "has been secured."
Kearns said ``a number of weapons'' were recovered at the scene, but he declined to provide further details on the shootings, including what type of weapons were used or how many shots were fired, citing the ongoing investigation. He said both state police and county authorities were involved in the probe, but a motive for the shootings has not yet been determined.
"We do not feel that the community at large is in any danger or jeopardy," Kearns said.
Autopsies were scheduled to be performed Sunday on all three family members. The two murders were the first to occur in the rural municipality in more than 20 years.
Neighbors described the family as ``quiet but troubled.'' Gabriel Wierzbicki had been in trouble with the law on several occasions in recent years, and he had recently returned home from college to look for a job.
Wanda Wierzbicki, a former receptionist for a local medical practice, was a self-published author. Her 2009 book, ``Without Surrender,'' chronicled the life of her brother, Sgt. William Blahut, an Army veteran of the Iraq War who died of cancer the day before his unit returned from a yearlong deployment.
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