An elderly Las Vegas man and his wife went to the Death Valley National Park in January with a murder-suicide on the itinerary.
Police from Inyo County responded to a gruesome scene after Paul Fischer, 73, called 911 and said he had killed his wife, Mary Fischer, 72. He told the operator he was going to kill himself next. He told the dispatcher where to find the bodies.
The officers found the dead couple and a note left in the car, written by Paul Fischer. He explained that his wife suffered from chronic health conditions.
According to the FBI, one of the leading causes of domestic murder-suicides is one person’s desire to relieve another person of a disability or illness. Most victims of such incidents are children and elderly adults.
Two common features of domestic murder-suicides are that adult white males commit an overwhelming number of them, and that guns are the most common weapons used to commit the murders.
Death Valley National Park is about 3.4 million acres and reaches across the California-Nevada border. With the park’s harsh conditions and temperatures, most deaths are due to medical events, car accidents, suicide, or heat exposure.