Firefighters found the bodies of a man and two teenage boys inside a gutted home early Tuesday. Chula Vista Police investigators are calling the deaths an apparent murder-suicide unrelated to the fire. Police believe that the father shot and killed his two teenage sons before setting their Chula Vista home on fire and turning the gun on himself. Suicide notes were found at the home.
The house fire was reported at 1:37 a.m. Chula Vista firefighters extinguished it at about 2 a.m. Once inside, firefighters discovered the father's body in the hallway and the bodies of two teens in their bedrooms, police told KFMB-TV.
Channel 8 is reporting the father was Thomas Fuchs, 49, and that he shot his two sons, 15-year-old Sean and 13-year-old Kyle, before setting his house on fire; and then shot himself.
The mother of the two teens arrived at about 8:20 a.m. and talked to the police for a few moments before shouting "No, no, no!" She was driven away in a police vehicle, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Chula Vista Fire Capt. Gary Ficacci said investigators will be at the single-story, cul-de-sac home on Bonita Verde Drive off Sweetwater Road most of the day.
Neighbor Pat Valdivia described the family to the Union-Tribune as the "perfect dad and sons." He said the mother did not live at the house.
This would be the third murder-suicide in San Diego County since late May.
