HOUSTON – Houston police are investigating a murder-suicide in southeast Houston.
Investigators said they were called to a home around 7 a.m. Sunday and found a husband and wife shot to death inside their bedroom.
Officers said the husband shot his wife, 43-year-old Maribel Cruz, and then himself.
There were five people inside the house at the time, including some of the couple's own kids, who range in age from 1 to 20 years old.
According to investigators, the daughters heard what sounded like gunshots in the house around 12:45 a.m. and went to investigate. Through a window, they saw their mother lying in bed and thought she was sleeping. They had not heard any argument, so they didn't think anything was wrong and went back to bed.
"They heard what sounded like gunshots, but they thought maybe it was a pop gun that one of the kids was playing with, so they didn't think anything of it till this morning," said HPD Homicide Investigator Robert Lujin.
The eldest daughter, who is 20 years old, was getting ready for work around 7 a.m. when she saw her stepfather's pickup truck in the driveway. Knowing he was supposed to have left for work by 4 a.m., she went to the couple's bedroom, but found it locked. The daughter got a key, then opened the bedroom to find both her mother and stepfather dead from gunshot wounds, investigators said.
Neighbors who knew the couple were shocked, saying they never saw violence inside the home.
"From what we know they were calm people," Lewis Snyder said.
"They were nice people, I saw them very often," another neighbor, Adrian Lewis, said. "They would come around the corner and do little waves, you know."
Lewis said he heard the gun shots Saturday night.
"It was three multiple shots, back to back, " he said. "We actually thought they came from a distance, around the corner."
Lewis said he never imagined the shots came from his neighbors home.
Investigators talked to the family who said they never saw violence inside the couple's home and that if an argument happened, it was behind closed doors.
Neighbors said they feel for the couple's children.
"It's sad that any kid would find out that their parents are no longer with them," Lewis said.