MUNDELEIN, Ill. (WLS) — Police are conducting a murder-suicide investigation after five people were found shot to death at a north suburban home on Sunday night.
A concerned family member who had been unable to contact one of the victims called for police for a wellbeing check, and Mundelein police officers responded to the home in the 200-block of Wellington Avenue around 11:45 p.m.
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There, officers found five people, three men and two women, who appeared to have been shot with a handgun at close range. Police recovered two handguns from the scene.
Four of the people who died were family members, and the fifth was believed to be in a domestic relationship with the suspect. Two of the victims lived at the home where the shooting happened.
Neighbor Sam Escobedo says he believes he heard what could have been gunshots much earlier Sunday, just before noon.
“We heard firecrackers. Didn’t pay much attention to it; thought it was kids or something,” Escobedo said.
Neighbors said the couple who lived in the home were retired veterinarians. The wife was someone who would take regular walks in the neighborhood and was beloved by those who knew her, they said.
“She was a spry, retired veterinarian,” a neighbor said. “She was a friendly person. She’d wave to people. She’d have conversations with all kinds of neighbors… I’m horrified. I’m horrified that this would happen to somebody and somebody that I knew.”
Rosa Bernel said she works at a clinic that couple once owned.
“Very nice people; the best bosses I had in my whole life,” Bernel said.
Other neighbors say the couple was devoted to their pets.
“They were totally devoted to the animals, cats, obviously,” one neighbor said.
Many neighbors were shocked by the violence in this normally quiet neighborhood.
“It’s a really safe, small town. So, hearing this, five people dying, is kind of concerning,” said neighbor Pavli Ibarra.
Investigators were seen going in and out of the house and examining multiple cars in the driveway. Police forced their way into a gray Volkswagen in the parking lot nextdoor to the house.
It’s unclear what they found in the car or how that relates to the case. Detectives left the home with bags of presumed evidence on Monday afternoon, and police removed the crime tape around the house shortly afterward.
Police said the shooting appears to be an isolated incident, and the Lake County Coroner’s Office has not yet released the victims’ names.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Mundelein Police Department at 847-968-4600.
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