When a family of four was found dead this month in their Westwood Highlands home, it was a devastating shock to a neighborhood where violence is rare and houses are worth millions. As more details of the likely murder-suicide case leaked out through news reports, those who knew the victims expressed horror and disbelief at the tragic fate of a seemingly “normal” family.
But seeing the police tape outside 930 Monterey Blvd. left me with a different feeling: eerie familiarity. I’d been welcomed into that same home just months before by the family whose lives were soon to end there.
Though the medical examiner’s office has yet to release autopsy results, newly uncovered details explain some of what happened to married couple Thomas Russell “T.R.” Ocheltree and Paula Truong, and their daughters, Alexandra, 12, and Mackenzie, 9. According to police and family sources, the two girls and their father had been shot and were found dead in their beds on Oct 8…