2 Dead In Murder-Suicide In West Town After 5-Hour Standoff Tuesday

By Stephen Gossett in News on Oct 26, 2016 2:35PM

800 block of N Wolcott Ave

Chicago SWAT officers discovered two people dead in an apartment in West Town's East Village on Tuesday night after a five-hour standoff, according to police.

Police responded to a domestic-related call of shots fired at around 5 p.m. in the 800 block of North Wolcott Avenue. A barricade situation then lasted the next five hours, until a SWAT team moved into the building at 10 p.m. and found a man and woman dead inside the apartment, Officer Laura Amezaga, a police spokesperson, told Chicagoist.

The deceased were identified as Loretta Purcell, 82, and Christopher Kelly Purcell, 58, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Police are investigating the incident as a homicide.

According to a source that spoke with ABC7, Loretta was Christopher’s mother and the deaths appeared to be a murder-suicide. The source told ABC that Loretta was stabbed to death, but Christopher's cause of death was unknown.