Kendall, FL: Police investigate murder-suicide

KENDALL, Fla. (WSVN) -- Police are investigating a murder-suicide at a South Florida home.
"The husband shot his wife, then shot himself," said Miami-Dade Police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta.
The incident occurred just after midnight Monday at a home on 94th Street and Southwest 155th Avenue. Police arrived to find 69-year-old Jorge Astacio and his wife Sonia, 59, dead.
According to police, the couple's daughter was home at the time with her boyfriend and their young daughter. None of them were harmed. "The father immediately, when he heard the initial gunshot, was able to carry the baby and hide inside the bathroom," said Zabaleta.
However, police said the couple's daughter may have witnessed the shooting. "The daughter was in the residence at the time of the shooting, so she may have witnessed some of it," said Zabaleta.
Sonia Astacio's friend from church said she feared this tragedy would happen. "I feared that. I feared that because I have seen many cases where this has happened and for the things that he would say and I would tell her all the time, 'He's a sick person. Don't think of him as a normal person that you respect and would not go crazy,'" said Ana Galarza, "and he was in the military also, so he knew how to handle guns and stuff. He was a very strong-minded person."
Galarza said that over the year the two had known each other, Sonia had confided to her about her 20-year marriage to Jorge. "He was very abusive, physically and verbally, she was in the middle of divorce proceedings, which made it worse," she said.
Neighbors are shocked by the tragic news. "I care of them, and I talk to her and with him too, and I never thought in his mind it would happen like that," said Vanessa Morales.
"Very normal, very sweet, very friendly, lovely persons. It's a shame," said Alicia.
Police said the couple had lost two of their daughters, Grace Astacio and Ana Carolina Astacio-Sloan, some years ago. "Unfortunately tragedy struck this family in the past," said Zabaleta. "About two years ago, the other two daughters, that the husband and wife had, they were involved in a car accident on I-75 ... It was a fatal accident."