Almost a week after beginning a “death investigation” in east Tallahassee, the Leon County Sheriff’s Office has announced that the case is now being investigated as a murder-suicide that was a result of domestic violence.
Deputies responded to a request for a welfare check Jan. 25 in the 1300 block of Gateshead Circle off Buck Lake Road and found a man and a woman dead inside the home, according to a LCSO news release.
Penny Lucas, 50, died from an apparent gunshot wound, and her husband, John Lucas Jr., 62, died from “an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound,” according to an emailed update on the case.
The case remains an active and ongoing investigation, according to LCSO.
The murder-suicide further cements an already violent start to the new year in Florida’s capital city. So far, six people have been killed and at least seven have been injured in nine separate serious shootings in the capital city and county, according to a Tallahassee Democrat analysis on gun violence.
In January 2023, the city experienced five shootings, two of them fatal.