November 17, 11:48 AMDetroit Crime ExaminerRobert Brignall
From an upscale neighborhood in Milford to a rurai St. Clair County home, two apparent murder-suicides have left police groping for motives and friends and relatives in shocked disbelief. In neither case was a suicide note found, nor was there any history of prior disturbances to which police were summoned.
In Milford, investigators believe money woes may have been churning just beneath the placid surface of the Valentino household. Relatives who phoned Joe Valentino last Friday claim they were not alerted to any serious problem. Shortly thereafter though, Valentino shot his wife Lucille, his dog, and finally himself. The Valentinos, both in their early sixties, were empty nesters.
This was not the case in the Parsons' household, located about 40 miles northeast of Detroit in a rural St. Clair County neighborhood. There Philip Parsons, 37, resided with his wife Gina, 34, and two fourteen year old boys, products of the couple's previous marriages. Parsons was an out of work truck driver, his wife ran a home business, the teens were in high school. If Philip Parsons had a beef against the world or anyone in it, he stoically kept it to himself.
Yet late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, he shot the kids and his wife as they slept, then fired a bullet into his own head. Police found the bodies after a concerned relative called them Sunday night. The St. Clair County Sheriff's Department has yet to uncover a motive for the killings, which left friends, relatives and schoolmates in shock.
One neighbor told investigators she had heard gunshots coming from the direction of the Parsons' home, but did not think much of it. "Almost every night you hear gunshots," she said. "Everybody has a gun."
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