LATHROP - A 41-year-old Patterson man and his 10-year-old son were found dead Friday morning in a van parked on farmland east of Tracy.
Investigators believe the father, Anthony Lee Williams, shot his son, Hussan Williams, and then himself.
Deputy Les Garcia, a Sheriff's Office spokesman, said Williams and his wife, Hussan's mother, were going through a divorce.
The bodies were discovered at about 8 a.m. Friday on a levee road near Paradise Cut, just west of Interstate 5 and north of Interstate 205. Garcia said a security guard found Williams' van during his regular rounds.
"He's the one who found the van and then alerted us," Garcia said.
Deputy Raj Singh of the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department said Hussan was at a friend's house Thursday when his father arrived to pick him up. Later, Singh said, Williams called his wife and said he and his son were going to start their own life together elsewhere.
Singh said though the couple had separated, custody rights had not been settled. Hussan had reportedly gone with his father willingly, and authorities had no standing to take him back.
"There was no abduction, no threat," Singh said.
There was some communication between Williams and his wife Friday night as authorities attempted to arrange Hussan's return, but the two stopped talking to each other, Singh said.
There were two other murder-suicides in San Joaquin County this year, one of them in Stockton and another in Acampo. Those were also domestic, but the victims in both cases were adult women. One was killed by her fiancé, the other by her husband.
Contact reporter Christian Burkin at (209) 546-8279 or cburkin@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/burkinblog.
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