Chicago, IL: Couple found dead in apparent murder-suicide

January 13, 2010
SUN-TIMES MEDIA WIRE
An "infidelity" possibly caused a man to fatally shoot a woman and then turn the gun on himself in an apparent murder-suicide inside the woman’s Park Manor home Tuesday afternoon on the South Side.

Police News Affairs Officer Veejay Zala said a man and woman were found dead at 1:24 p.m. on the first floor of a home in the 7600 block of South Prairie Avenue.

The first responding officers found the woman’s body first, in bed with covers on her. When the detectives arrived and looked under the covers the man’s body was found, according to police who said both were shot.

Martha Byrd, 52, and an unidentified man in his 50s were both found dead in Byrd’s home on the 7600 block of South Prairie Avenue, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

The man suffered a gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at 5:10 p.m. on the scene, according to the medical examiner’s office. The woman suffered unidentified injuries and was also pronounced dead at 5:10 p.m. on the scene, according to a spokesman for the medical examiner’s office.

A note was found on the scene and indicated their deaths occurred because of an “infidelity,’’ according to police who said the man may have been the woman’s boyfriend.

Police are investigating the incident as an apparent murder-suicide, according to police.

Sources said the woman’s death appears to be a homicide.

Calumet Area detectives are investigating.