MARIETTA — Friends of a couple discovered dead in their Marietta home Wednesday said they were shocked to hear police call it a murder-suicide.
Maryellen Cano, 32, and Wilbur “Sonny” Carl South, 28, were found dead at their home on Springdale Drive after Cano’s father met with Marietta Police on Wednesday night to report that he hadn’t heard from his daughter in two days. Police went to the home and discovered Cano’s red Chevrolet Silverado with a Fulton County tag still in the driveway, but no one answered the front door.
After getting permission from the property owner, police entered the home, where they found Cano and South shot to death.
Marietta Police Officer David Baldwin said South shot Cano and then killed himself, though he did not know how many shots were fired or how long the two had been dead.
William Kuhn, South’s best friend, has known him for more than four years. They started fighting in mixed martial arts together about four years ago.
Kuhn said he last spoke to South, who was known to friends as “Sonny,” on Monday through text messages.
“We talked about some fights that were on TV over the weekend, asked him if he saw them, just usual things,” he said. “Nothing seemed bad.”
Kuhn said Cano and South had fights but that he never imagined that his best friend would kill his girlfriend, and then turn the gun on himself.
“They had a pretty volatile relationship …. they had one domestic dispute that was reported, and that’s pretty much it,” Kuhn said. “Everything seemed like it was going well, but that’s why it was pretty shocking.”
The two had been together for a little over two years, he said, and moved into the Marietta home about six months ago after living in an apartment together on and off in Alpharetta.
“They’ve been kind of laying low since the domestic dispute,” he said. “They have been very docile in their relationship, almost like they were not wanting anyone to know that they were back together.”
Kuhn also said that he didn’t remember the two ever fighting or arguing in public either. The domestic dispute, which he said was reported as a simple battery charge, happened about eight months ago, when South pushed Cano during an argument in their Alpharetta home. She called police.
Kuhn said he learned of the death from South’s father around 4 a.m. Thursday.
“His dad was very, very distraught … very upset,” he said. “They had just repaired their relationship in the last year or so. His dad helped him out when he was financially hurting. His father had just visited him about two weeks ago, too. So he got a chance to see him before he died.”
Dave Oblas, a fight promoter at Wild Bill’s in Atlanta, said he had been friends with the couple for about four years.
“They had their fights, but no one saw this coming,” he said.
Oblas said he last saw Cano on Saturday night at Wild Bill’s.
“She was very upbeat, as usual,” he said. “She was there supporting a friend from South Carolina, helping her out in the corner.”
He couldn’t remember when he had last seen South, whom he described as “extremely nice — out of the ring.”
“As soon as you put in him the ring, he was like Mike Tyson, he would switch from a nice guy to a fighter in a second,” Oblas said, adding that Cano was the same way.
“She was a normal girl with an average background. The only unique thing about her was that she enjoyed punching girls in the face,” Oblas said with a laugh. “Most fighters are the nicest people you’ll ever meet. The stereotype that fighters are violent people couldn’t be any farther from the truth.”
Oblas added that Cano was undefeated over four bouts and was an excellent fighter. She had been training for fights for a little more than two years and been training in Jiu-Jitsu for nearly five.
He said South was pretty good as well, fighting nearly 10 fights, with a record of 5-5.
“I don’t think he was technically as good as she was, but he was an animal in the ring,” he said.
Neighbors of the couple who were home Thursday morning said they rarely saw them and had actually never met Cano or South.
One neighbor, who has lived in the area for about 15 years but declined to give her name, said she would only see South outside every few days walking his dogs in the backyard.
“They never came outside,” she said. “I only saw (South) once or twice. I haven’t seen the girl in the a long time.”
She said that police knocked on her door and asked her a few questions before contacting the homeowner and discovering that the two were dead inside.
The only “unusual” thing that the neighbor noticed on her street recently was an unknown person who she actually saw walking up and down the street sometime Saturday.
“I remembered this morning that I did see somebody walking up the street Saturday,” she said. “He went up to their door.”
She said the stranger talked to someone at Cano and South’s door, but she was not sure if it was one of them the stranger spoke to because she could not see their face.
Milton Dickson, another Springdale Drive resident, said he never saw the two in or around their home either, or even driving. He did not know what happened next door until approached by a Journal reporter as his home.
“I got home around 2 (p.m. Wednesday), and there was a cop car down there, but it didn’t have its lights on,” he said. “I also saw someone from animal control.”
Dickson, who has lived in his home for 30 years, said crime wasn’t exactly “high” in the area, but he has been broken into four or five times since he moved into his home in the 1970s.
Cobb County Animal Control was called to pick up Cano and South’s pets, two pit bulls and a Shih Tzu, which were all unharmed and will be held at the shelter for a “crisis hold,” said Don Bruce, facility operations manager.
In 1996, Marietta firefighters rescued 92-year-old Nila Jordan from the same home. Jordan was an invalid confined to her bed and trapped in a fire in the home.
Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - Police Marietta couple found dead in murder suicide
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