Long Beach, CA: Apparent Spousal Murder/Suicide Leaves Two ELB Residents Dead, Four Yr Old Daughter Orphaned

(Aug. 16, 2010) -- An apparent spousal murder/suicide has left two ELB residents dead and their four year old daughter an orphan.
Jason Walston, 38, allegedly shot and killed his wife, Amy Walston, 35. Their daughter was staying with other family members and wasn't at home as the fatal events unfoled, LBPD says.


LBReport.com began following this story Sunday afternoon, and now has more. In a release, LBPD says:

On August 15, 2010, at approximately 4:00 p.m., Long Beach Police responded to assist Long Beach Park Rangers on a person with a gun call inside El Dorado Park, and discovered a male adult victim who appeared to have died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
When Park Rangers arrived, they found the victim who had sustained a gunshot wound to the upper body, sitting by a tree inside the park. Officers were unable to identify the victim at the scene, and his body was released to the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office.
The victim was later identified by the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office as 38-year-old Jason Walston of Long Beach. Long Beach police responded to the home of the victim, located in the 1900 block of Lees Avenue, in an attempt to notify the decedent’s family. After receiving no response at the door, officers forced entry into the residence to check on the well being of the occupants. While searching the residence, officers found the body of 35-year-old Amy Walston, the wife of Jason Walston whom he shared the home with.

Homicide detectives responded to scene to conduct an investigation and are treating this as a homicide. The cause of Amy’s death was not apparent at the scene and will be determined by the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office pending the autopsy. Based on the preliminary investigation, it appears as though Jason Walston may have murdered his wife prior to committing suicide.

The couple shared a 4-year-old daughter who was staying with family members and was not home at the time of the incident.

PressTelegram.com's Kelly Puente was first to report that the couple operated a business, Iconic Automotive, which provided products and services for classic auto restoration.

LBPD asks anyone with information regarding these incidents to contact LBPD Homicide Detectives David Rios and Roger Zottneck at (562) 570-7244. A woman was found dead in a home in the 1900 block of Lees Ave. (east of Studebaker at 405) on Sunday (Aug. 15), the victim of a possible homicide.

LBPD is investigating her death as possibly related to a man's suicide Sunday in El Dorado Park (the latter previously reported by LBReport.com).

Further as we learn it.