Officials Suspect Murder/Suicide

Officials are now leaning toward calling the deaths of two people found outside a house on Private Road 5306 last Thursday, a murder/suicide; however, investigators are still awaiting autopsy results.

"We are still waiting for autopsy results to confirm, but it appears that with all the crime scene investigations conducted that we are tentatively calling this a murder/suicide," Van Zandt County Sheriff R.P. "Pat" Burnett said Tuesday morning.

Officials were called to a house located off the Tank Farm Road southeast of Canton late Thursday morning, where Antonio Trujillo, a Hispanic male believed to be in his mid 40s, and Maria Loredo, 51, were found dead in the back yard.

Four children were in the house, at the time of the incident, and ranged in age from 13 to 19 years old.

Van Zandt County Chief Deputy John Turner said, "A contractor arrived at the home to do some work. He and the 19-year-old, who was Loredo’s son, went into the back yard and found the victims."

Turner went on to say that the children were unaware of what had happened outside.

Burnett said Trujillo is believed to have shot Loredo and then himself.

Van Zandt County Investigator Kenny Martin said the weapon used in the deaths was a small caliber handgun.

"It also appears that they were not romantically involved," Burnett said.

Martin said Trujillo was a tenant at Loredo’s house where he rented a room.

Burnett did confirm that last year the sheriff’s office had run a raid on the house for bootlegging.