Cops ID Family of Five Dead in SoCal Home
Ex-professor, wife, twin daughters and grandmother were found dead in the home.
May 27, 2008— -- Authorities this evening identified the five family members found dead Sunday inside a Southern California gated community home overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Manas Ucar and his wife, Margrit, 58 and 49 respectively; 21-year-old identical twin daughters Margo and Grace Ucar; and 72-year-old Fransuhi Kesisoglu, identified as Margrit Ucar's mother, were among the dead, Lt. Erin Giudice, a spokeswoman for the Orange County sheriff's office, confirmed to ABC News.
Earlier in the day, authorities declined to identify the five people, but confirmed that the house at 31 Campanilla Street in Sea Pointe Estates, where the decomposing bodies were found, is the same address where Ucar, a former university professor, lived with his family.
Authorities believe the bodies may have been in the house for up to three weeks.
Giudice also confirmed that Margrit Ucar suffered a gunshot wound. Previously, authorities had said that only Manas Ucar had an obvious sign of a gunshot wound. The exact causes of death for all five, however, remain unknown pending additional autopsy results.
Two handguns were recovered at the scene, one of which was registered to Margrit Ucar, according to Giudice.
The five bodies were all in a downstairs bedroom connected to a closet-type space by a bathroom. The male and middle-aged female bodies were found inside the closet-type space. Authorities found no sign of a forced entry.
Giudice said Monday that police were not actively looking for a murder suspect, suggesting the possibility that the deaths may be the result of a murder-suicide. Giudice, however, declined to speculate on the nature of the deaths.
Authorities responded to a 911 call late Sunday afternoon after three family members -- concerned after not hearing from their relatives in weeks -- made the grisly find.
First Check 10 Days Ago
Concerned neighbors had earlier requested that authorities check around the home's exterior, which the sheriff's office did on May 14 and again Saturday. Officers found nothing to suggest anything was amiss.
"One of the neighbors nearby, who is a friend of that family, said they had not seen them in a while and were concerned," acting Orange County Sheriff Jack Anderson told Los Angeles ABC affiliate KABC-TV, Sunday. "But they thought maybe they had gone off on a trip."
Manas Ucar was a professor of engineering and computer science at Syracuse University in New York in the early 1980s, Kevin Morrow, a university spokesman, told ABC News. Ucar left the university, where he received master's and doctoral degrees, between 1983 and 1985, to start a consulting company. His fields of expertise while at the university included thermal energy systems and solar energy, Morrow said.
Ucar's name appears in multiple online lists of California expert legal witnesses who specialize in car accident reconstruction. The professional address provided for Ucar is 31 Campanilla Street. A call to the number listed for the house goes to a voice mail greeting.
Pat JaCoby, a spokeswoman for the University of California at San Diego, told ABC News that Margo and Grace Ucar were among the graduates during the last winter quarter from the university's Revelle College. Both are listed as human biology majors among the students listed for the 2008 commencement. At one point during college, Margo changed the spelling of her name from Margeaux with the registrar's office, JaCoby said.
Sea Pointe Estates is a gated community of more than 70 homes perched on a hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean in San Clemente, Calif., at the southern edge of Orange County.
Roxie Weaver, who lives inside Sea Pointe, said her daughter attended the local high school with the Ucar twins, who, she said, always dressed alike in school.
"They're our neighbors and we're very saddened by this horrible tragedy," Weaver said. "We're all mortified by this whole thing."
Weaver described the gated community as private and quiet.
"This type of horrific thing only shows you the condition of our world," Weaver said. "You may live in what you think is a paradise, but sometimes it isn't."