Parents’ deaths ruled homicide, suicide
by David L. Teibel on Mar. 22, 2007, under LocalCouple’s deaths ruled homicide-suicide
The deaths of a man and his wife Tuesday in their Southwest Side home have been determined to be a homicide and suicide, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Detectives have not been able to determine why John Sterrett, 60, shot and killed his 51-year-old wife, Linda, before turning the gun on himself, Deputy Dawn Barkman said.
Family members are at a loss to explain the killings to detectives.
“They all seemed surprised by what happened,” Barkman said of family members interviewed by investigators.
The Pima County Superior Court’s Web site showed no divorce action filed to end the Sterretts’ marriage.
The Sterretts’ bodies were discovered after their 14-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter came home from school about 5 or 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Barkman said.
After the children found their parents’ bedroom door locked, they went to the home of an aunt who lived nearby, Barkman said.
The three returned to the home, and the aunt managed to get the bedroom door unlocked and found the bodies, Barkman said.
The aunt called 911 at 6:51 p.m., and deputies were sent to the home in the 7600 block of South Bosworth Field Way, near West Los Reales Road and South Sorrel Lane, Barkman said.
