MUNDELEIN, IL - A horrific scene was found by police in the Chicago suburb of Mundelein, located approximately 35 miles northwest of downtown Chicago, when the bodies of five adults with fatal gunshot wounds were discovered during a routine welfare check, police said. NBC-5 Chicago reported an active death investigation underway inside the home.
At approximately 11:45 p.m. on Sunday, the Mundelein Police Department dispatched officers for a well-being check in the 200 block of Wellington Avenue. When officers entered the home, they found the bodies of three men and two women inside.
According to the Lake County Coroner’s Office, all five appeared to have died from gunshot wounds. Two handguns were recovered from the scene, police said.
Reporters at the scene saw officers and other law enforcement authorities walking in and out of the home. Along with Mundelein police, evidence technician vehicles from the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force were on site.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office told the outlet that the major crimes task force responds to serious and suspicious incidents, including homicides, suspicious deaths, in-custody deaths, officer-involved shootings, and “heinous crimes” within cities in Lake County.
Police said the incident was isolated and there is no threat to the public.
Late Monday, police said the five were either family members or in a domestic relationship, and said their investigation found it was a murder-suicide. Police said all five were shot at close range with a handgun. Two of the victims resided at the address. Four were family members, while the fifth was believed to have been in a domestic relationship with the suspect.
The identities of the suspect and victims have not yet been released.
In August, Chicago police responded to a double shooting inside the Mark Twain Elementary School in what police classified as a murder-suicide.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that a veteran custodian, who had worked at the school for 20 years, fatally shot Amalia Bautista-Perez, 48, who was walking down a hallway in the school. The suspect, 63-year-old Theottis James Stigger, then turned the gun on himself and fatally shot himself in the head.
Police determined that Stigger was reportedly upset that he was being transferred from the school. The two had apparently had some disagreements prior to the shootings.
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