An elderly Ohio couple was found shot to death inside their home after their daughter noticed something disturbing in the driveway and called police, leading to the discovery of a third body and a suspected murder-suicide.
The horrifying discovery unfolded Tuesday, November 10, in the quiet Cleveland suburb of North Royalton, where officers responded to a home on Tiffany Drive shortly before 8 p.m.
According to the North Royalton Police Department, a woman contacted authorities after repeatedly trying to reach her parents without success. Her concerns intensified when she noticed her estranged ex-husband’s vehicle parked outside their home.
She told police the man was not welcome at the residence.
When officers arrived, they attempted to contact the homeowners but received no response. They entered the house and discovered 71-year-old Sorin Ciortan dead in an upstairs hallway with an apparent gunshot wound to the head.
Moments later, officers found his wife, 71-year-old Emilia Ciortan, dead in the dining room with a similar injury.
But the disturbing discovery was far from over.
With the daughter’s ex-husband’s vehicle still parked outside and his whereabouts unknown, officers withdrew from the house and called for additional assistance.
A specialized tactical team from the Southwest Enforcement Bureau was brought in to conduct a more extensive search of the property.
During that search, officers discovered a third body in the lower level of the home.
Police identified the man as Stefan Pascu, 71, the couple’s former son-in-law. He had suffered an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, and investigators recovered a firearm nearby.
The circumstances have led authorities to investigate the deaths as a suspected murder-suicide, although officials have not publicly established a motive or released a final determination.
Additional details have raised troubling questions about what happened before the shootings.
According to a report by the New York Post citing the daughter’s emergency call, she told a dispatcher that Pascu had struggled to move on from their divorce, which occurred more than a decade earlier. She also reportedly said he had recently returned from Romania and had been behaving unusually.
Authorities have not independently confirmed whether those circumstances played a role in the deaths.
Local news footage showed a significant police presence outside the residence, where several windows appeared damaged and the front entrance had been forced open.
The North Royalton Police Department’s Detective Bureau is investigating the case with assistance from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Police have assured residents that there is no continuing threat to public safety.
For the couple’s daughter, what began as an unsettling discovery outside her parents’ home ended with the devastating news that three members of her extended family were dead.
