Daughter kills herself in office complex where mother found shot to death in a locked closet

Police say the woman may have taken her own life because of “the stress of finding out her mother was dead.”

A mother and daughter were found dead in a San Diego office complex this weekend amid a bizarre series of events that police say is not being investigated as a murder-suicide.

According to the San Diego Tribune, police had reported to the Mission Valley office complex on Saturday to investigate an apparent homicide of a 66-year-old woman. Maria Kelly had been reported missing by her family two days prior, and was found dead of a single gunshot wound.

While police were there, Kelly’s 34-year-old daughter shot and killed herself in a ladies’ room in an adjacent office building, while police and numerous family members were at the scene of the apparent murder.

The San Diego Tribune reports that one of Kelly’s daughters and a granddaughter went to the office on Saturday afternoon to look for Kelly, whose car was in the parking lot of the building. After they found her body in the closet, the granddaughter called police, at around 1:20 p.m.

Initially, police believed that Kelly had died of natural causes, but a medical examination found a single gunshot wound.

Additional family members arrived to the scene on Saturday afternoon, including Kelly’s distraught husband and the daughter who would kill herself, who was not the same daughter who made the initial discovery.

Officers reported a shooting at the office complex at about 4 p.m. Saturday, as gathered family members were reportedly screaming that Kelly’s daughter, Crystal, had shot herself in the bathroom.

“Obviously a unique situation,” Homicide Lt. Mike Holden told the San Diego Tribune. “We do not have a suspect identified, or any suspect information to put out.”

Holden told the newspaper that Crystal is not a suspect in her mother’s death, and that police believe she may have taken her own life due to “the stress of finding out her mother was dead.”

Kelly reportedly operated a bookkeeping and tax preparation business at the office where she was found dead. Kelly’s husband told police that he was not initially panicked by his wife’s disappearance, as he believed she may have gone to a casino with a friend, as she had done in the past.

The distraught husband was taken to the hospital from the scene.

Family members reportedly described the victim as a “sweetheart” and a “loving, generous person.”

 

Feature photo: ABC 10 News video screenshot