On January 2, a Thursday night, Christopher Wood told his estranged wife, “This is how it ends for us.”
The next day, on Friday morning, the 51-year-old father and his 14-year-old daughter, Ava Wood, were found dead in Wood’s apartment in Baldwinsville, New York, where he was living with his daughter, in what appeared to be a murder-suicide.
Ava’s mother called the police when the girl’s school told her that her daughter, a ninth grader at Durgee Junior High, had not been to school. The police went to the apartment to do a welfare check at 8:30 am on Friday morning and found the gruesome sight.
Ava was found dead on her bed with a gunshot wound. Her father was found dead in another room, from what was assumed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police believe Wood shot Ava first and killed himself after.
Ava’s parents were having domestic problems and were living apart, with Ava spending most of the time with her father. The parents apparently had an argument a day before the tragic murder/suicide.
Ava was an honor student and athlete at her upstate New York Junior High School. She was a member of the Girls’ Junior Varsity Soccer Team and the Track and Field Team.
Friends paid tribute to the 14-year-old girl on her Instagram account. The police continue to investigate the incident.