Longview, WA- On Halloween, a tragic incident unfolded in Washington state when an 11-year-old alerted authorities after witnessing their parents fatally harm each other while the child was occupied in another room with video games and headphones.
On October 31 at approximately 6:05 p.m. local time, authorities from the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office arrived at a residence on Olympia Way in Longview. There, they found a man and a woman in the kitchen area who had tragically passed away from their injuries, as confirmed in a statement released on Thursday, November 7.
Emergency responders from Cowlitz 2 Fire and Rescue provided first aid, but their efforts were in vain, according to the statement. The individuals in question have been recognized as Juan Antonio Alvarado Saenz, aged 38, and Cecilia Robles Ochoa, aged 39.
The following day, the CCSO posted on Facebook stating that there was “no indication of any ongoing threat to the public.”
According to the CCSO, the only other individual present in the home during the altercation was the couple’s 11-year-old child, who was “playing video games while using earbuds” and “did not witness the altercation.”
A child discovered their injured parents and promptly contacted the authorities, as one of them had sustained a gunshot wound. Following the acquisition of a search warrant, the scene was processed and interviews were conducted, leading authorities to discover that the couple was experiencing “relationship issues” and had plans to “separate.”
According to police reports referencing autopsies, Alvarado Saenz succumbed to multiple stab wounds to the chest, whereas Robles Ochoa suffered fatal injuries from both gunshot and stab wounds.
Investigators found a knife and a pistol, the latter of which had been reported stolen from Alvarado Saenz’s workplace, at the scene of the incident. The CCSO stated that the firearm was “not found to be absent until following this incident.”
The CCSO stated in its release, “There is no evidence of any third-party involvement in this case. Investigation at the scene and the autopsy results indicate that both subjects were assaulting each other, but investigators are unable to determine a primary aggressor.”