Double Homicide in Merced County | ABC30 Fresno

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By ABC30

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Merced County, Calif. The coroner's office just removed the two bodies within the last hour. Detectives say one of the victims was a male who suffered multiple gunshot wounds, but the body was so badly decomposed that they can't determine his age, identity, or exact cause of death.

The second victim was found covered in a blanket, but no other information has been released about that person. Now family members of the couple who live here are now coming together to wait for answers.

Family members of the couple who lived in this rural Merced County home gathered outside the yellow crime tape Wednesday afternoon waiting to find out what happened to their loved ones. Lucio Cisneros says the victims were his sister in law and brother ... who Cisneros describes as a kind hearted man who worked as a Gardner at Merced High School before starting his own business.

"Any time you needed help, he would help you out. So he would help the family out. He took care of us when we were small since my mother was divorced," said Cisneros.

This investigation began after someone called Animal Control to report dogs on the property that appeared abandoned and emaciated. Animal Control officers couldn't contact the owners inside, so they called the sheriff's department.

Deputy Tom Mackenzie said, "One of our deputies arrived on scene, he found an open door in the back, and after making several announcements with no response, he went in to do a welfare check and found two deceased bodies in one of the back rooms."

Cisneros says he hadn't heard from his brother in weeks, but wasn't worried because he thought they had gone to visit family in Mexico. He said, "I'd been waiting and waiting, and I was gonna call my sister and say let's find out where they're at, and then I got a phone call and she was over here, she said there's something happening at my brother's house."

Now detectives are trying to piece together exactly what happened and when.