New Chicago, IN: Police: Murder-suicide a 'love affair gone bad'

By Times Staff | Posted: Thursday, October 15, 2009 12:00 am

NEW CHICAGO | A Portage man and New Chicago woman are dead after a murder-suicide Wednesday morning in New Chicago, police said.

Paul Schanupa, 37, of 2769 Oakwood St., Portage, entered a home at 3153 N. Wisconsin St. about 6:30 a.m., went to the second floor and confronted a man and woman in bed, Lake County Police Chief Marco Kuyachich said.

Schanupa pointed a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun at the head of homeowner Jacob Guzman. Guzman, 26, deflected the gun, and Schanupa shot the woman, Jessica Northey, 25, Kuyachich said.

Northey was pronounced dead just after 8 a.m. in the home, a spokesman for the Lake County Coroner's office said. She recently had moved in with Guzman.

The shootings are believed to be the result of "a love affair gone bad" between Schanupa and Northey, Kuyachich said.

Guzman, who suffered gunshot wounds to the shoulder and arm area during the attack, ran out of the house to seek help. Schanupa continued shooting at Northey, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Schanupa then turned the gun on himself.

Another five or six people were believed to be in the home at the time, including Northey's son who is about 9 years old, Kuyachich said.

Many of them ran from the home and are being sought by police as witnesses, Kuyachich said. None of them were believed to be injured.

Guzman meanwhile went from home to home in the neighborhood asking for help, and a number of people called 911. An ambulance arrived and transported him to St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart.

Christian Gerhart, 23, said he'd had to clean blood from the front stoop of his fiance's home in the 3100 block of Wisconsin Street after a man believed to be Guzman came asking for help early Wednesday.

Gerhart said the man, who was covered in blood, banged on the door and said, "his girlfriend was shot and it was the ex-boyfriend." He asked that they call police, Gerhart said.

Another neighbor, who asked that his name not be used, said he'd heard between three and five gunshots early Wednesday but didn't realize what had happened until he went out to get his newspaper a while later.

The man said he didn't know the occupants of the home at 3153 Wisconsin Street but had seen people come and go from the house frequently.

The neighborhood, in a residential area just north of U.S. 6, normally is quiet, the man said. "We don't have problems."

The shootings remain under investigation by Lake County Sheriff's police, who were called in to assist at the request of New Chicago police, Kuyachich said.