Two couples dead in Amman in separate cases of murder-suicide

AMMAN — A 63-year-old man reportedly shot his wife, who had cancer, and then turned the gun on himself in the capital’s Hai Nazzal suburb on Sunday, senior official sources said.

Later in the evening, a man shot his wife dead and injured his three children before killing himself in Rujm Al Shami area in south Amman, Public Security Department Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sartawi said, adding that the three children are in critical condition.

The first incident, which occurred at around 9:30am, shook the building where the couple resided, a senior judicial source said.

“The residents heard gunshots and immediately called the police,” the judicial source told The Jordan Times.

When investigators arrived at the scene, they found “the 57-year-old woman dead in her bed [a medical bed used in hospitals] and her husband was next to her”, the source said, noting that both were shot in the head at close range.

Police found a note next to the couple “believed to be written by the husband, addressed to his son and daughter, in which he said he committed this act of his own free will and asked them not to hold an aza [mourning ceremony]”, the source added.

In their initial testimony to Criminal Court Prosecutor Issam Haddidi, the victims’ relatives said the woman “had been treated for cancer for the past few years and had a few months to live”.

The husband, the source maintained, “was suffering from mental problems and there was a record of him being treated at hospitals for epilepsy”.

“Everyone testified that the couple, who were cousins, enjoyed a good marital relationship and that the husband was taking care of his sick wife, who was almost paralysed,” the judicial source said, citing initial testimonies from relatives.

Haddidi would not make a conclusion on the possibility of foul play until receiving the crime lab’s results from blood and tissue samples taken from the victims, according to the judicial source.

“Based on the results Haddidi will either close the case or continue with the investigations,” the judicial source said.

An autopsy is expected to take place on Monday at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, according to its director, Kais Koussous.

“A team of government physicians will conduct an autopsy tomorrow and the findings will be forwarded to the Criminal Court prosecutor,” Koussous told The Jordan Times.