From the outside they seemed like a family who had it all. Their newly remodeled Palos Park home was adorned with carefully planned landscaping and several cars sat in the driveway.
That image was broken Tuesday afternoon when a quiet wooded Palos Park street was blocked off with police cars, yellow police tape now stretches across the well kept home.
It was their 17-year-old son, a student at Stagg High School, who found the bodies of his parents in the bathroom of the home at 12315 Mohawk Road, police said.
Larisa Markewych, 55, was dead on the floor, the victim of a gunshot wound, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. Nearby was her husband Walter Puk, 53, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, officials said.
They were found at 3:36 p.m.
What exactly transpired in the bathroom that afternoon might never be fully known, a crime confined to those who were there.
Police were called to the home in October of last year over a verbal dispute, Police Chief Joe Miller said.
Also in the home at the time of the incident was the elderly mother of Markewych who is sickly, police said. She was transported to a nearby care facility.
A college-age daughter goes to school in Wisconsin. Both children attended District 118 schools.
"Very nice kids," wrote Sue Hennessy on the Palos Patch Facebook page. "Our heartfelt sympathy to them and their entire family."
At no time did the investigation focus on other suspects.
“The incident was contained to the home,” Miller said.
In the hours after their deaths, neighbors anxiously wondered what was transpiring on the usually serene street. Sirens and police tape are an extremely rare occurrence.
“Not a lot of the neighbors knew this family,” said Sue Welbourn, who lives on a nearby block. “From the outside they looked like the perfect family.”
Markewych was a dentist in Palos Heights, her office located at 7804 W. College Drive. She was expected into the office around 3 p.m. that afternoon, police said.
According to Markewych’s LinkedIn profile, she was a graduate of Loyola University’s dental school and has been practicing since 1984.
“Everyone I know is just shocked and feels terrible for the son,” Welbourn said.
The deaths of another husband and wife might still be on the minds of area residents. It was on Sept. 11 of last year that John and Maria Granat were found beaten and stabbed in their Palos Township home about six blocks from Mohawk Road.
Their son John Granat, and three friends, have been charged with their murders.
A similar incident occurred in May of 2003 when an elderly man who was dying of cancer shot his wife and himself at their home on the 12500 block of 90th Avenue. It was the last incidence of murder within the Village of Palos Park, Miller said.
Police are meeting with the family Wednesday afternoon and investigators with the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force continue to look into the circumstances of the shooting, Miller said.
The case is expected to wrap up within a day or two.
No comments:
Post a Comment