Greenville, SC: Couple found dead in burned house died of gunshot wounds Deaths suspected to be murder-suicide

By Paul Alongi
And Eric Connor

A married couple’s path that ended with a murder-suicide and a raging house fire on the edge of a Paris Mountain golf course can be traced back to a neighborhood near Mobile, Ala.

Hilda Drazdowsky of Spanish Fort, Ala. said Robert and Lisa Creta lived next door to her for about three years and moved out a few weeks ago. Drazdowsky said she remembered once returning a pool toy that had blown into her yard and Lisa telling her she was from Augusta, Ga.

But if there were any signs of the troubles that awaited the couple in their new home two states away, Drazdowsky said she didn’t see it in Alabama.

Greenville County Chief Deputy Coroner Mike Ellis said the Cretas, a married couple of 20 years, were shot to death, and he believes the deaths were the result of a murder-suicide. The couple’s dog also was found shot to death.

The husband, “tentatively identified” as 48-year-old Robert Frank Creta Jr., was a former employee of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Ellis said.

Creta’s wife, 46-year-old Lisa Creta, was last employed by the federal Bureau of Prisons, Ellis said. A positive identification of Robert Creta will come after a review of dental records, according to Ellis.

Neither a cause of the fire nor a motive for the shootings had been determined Monday, Greenville County Sheriff’s Deputy Matthew Armstrong said.

Sheriff’s investigators were awaiting a “positive identification” of the victims, Armstrong said.

ATF officials couldn’t be reached for comment.

Lisa Creta was found in her bed with multiple gunshot wounds to her head, Ellis said.

Robert Creta was found in the couple’s home on the Summersett Golf Course with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Ellis said.

A 4-year-old lab and pit bull mix dog that belonged to the couple was shot twice inside the home at 1 Belle Terre Court, Ellis said.

The Cretas’ brick home – gutted by the blaze just before dawn Saturday – is alongside the golf course at the southern slope of Paris Mountain in a small neighborhood of similar homes.

A water-and-ash soaked holiday greeting that read “To A Special Daughter And Son-In-Law” sat crumpled in the driveway Monday, just beyond a front stoop intertwined with charred white Christmas lights.

A gas-powered fireplace, virtually unblemished fake logs inside, stood starkly in the middle of what once was the living room.

Investigators had more answers Monday than they did when the house was consumed with flames over the weekend and two people were found dead inside --– but the question of why remained unanswered.

Firefighters arrived at the home shortly before 7 a.m. Saturday after receiving a call. Autopsies showed Lisa Creta had died at about 3 a.m. and Robert Creta at about 6 a.m., Ellis said.

Neighbors in Greenville and Alabama said the husband and wife would wave when they were seen outside their homes but otherwise revealed little.

“She seemed very nice the one time I did talk to her, but that was a couple years ago,” Drazdowsky said.

Donice Winslow, whose home overlooks the Cretas’ residence, said the couple had moved into the Greenville County house two months ago, and Robert Creta was sometimes seen walking his dog.

Winslow said she left for her job at a downtown coffee shop not long before the fire was reported, but doesn’t remember hearing gunshots or seeing smoke or flames.

“I woke up cheerful today,” Winslow said, looking toward the charred home with the sun setting over the mountain. “But I look out and there it is. It’s like a dark cloud.”