Debra Escobedo, 60

Died Feb. 11, 2011

Debra Escobedo, identified by the coroner's office as a 60-year-old white woman, died Friday, Feb. 11, in the 16000 block of Janine Drive in Whittier, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records.

Police first responded to a report about noon that a woman in a house had been shot. Assuming that a gunman was still inside, police did not enter right away and called the SWAT team.

Authorities later found the bodies of two men and a woman inside the home. They've since been identified by coroner's investigators as those of Debra Escobedo and her husband, Raul Escobedo, a 67-year-old white man. The third body discovered in the house has not been officially identified, but the investigator said it may be the couple’s son.

The deaths apparently arose from a family dispute, according to Sgt. Brent Anderson of the Whittier Police Department, but the details were still unclear.

"We just know that they were all in the same house with each other," he said.

Friends told the Whittier Daily News that the couple “tried to help their 'troubled' son, Mario Escobedo,” and it’s believed he killed his parents in a murder-suicide incident.

Officials told the Whittier Daily News that the son committed suicide, while Debra and Raul Escobedo’s deaths were deemed homicides. Records show that they were both shot in the chest and head.

— Larry Gordon, Kate Linthicum and Sarah Ardalani