5 Shot Dead in Suspected Murder-Suicide Shatter "Safe" Chicago Suburb

MUNDELEIN, Illinois — Five adults were found shot dead inside a quiet suburban Chicago home late Sunday night in what authorities have ruled an apparent murder-suicide, stunning a village where violent crime is a rarity.

Mundelein police officers entered the single-story home on Wellington Avenue around 11:45 p.m. Sunday after the daughter of the homeowners, calling from California, asked for a welfare check because she could not reach her family. Inside, officers found three men and two women dead in several rooms, each killed by close-range gunshot wounds.

Two handguns were recovered at the scene.

Deputy Police Chief Rick Wilfenger said investigators believe four of the dead were family members, while the fifth was in a domestic relationship with the suspected gunman. Two of the victims lived at the home. On Monday, after autopsies conducted by the Lake County Coroner's Office, the deaths were officially ruled a murder-suicide, according to NBC 5 Chicago and CBS News Chicago.

Authorities have not yet released the victims' names, pending post-mortem confirmation and notification of relatives living outside Illinois. But property records and multiple local outlets — including WLS-TV, the Daily Herald, and NBC 5 Investigates — identify the homeowners as retired veterinarians Rebecca Schmidt, 77, and her husband James Schmidt, 80, along with their 51-year-old son Bryan Schmidt, who helped run the family's now-closed Northern Illinois Cat Clinic in nearby Libertyville.

Neighbors said they heard what sounded like gunshots around noon Sunday but assumed they were firecrackers set off ahead of the Chicago Bears game against the Atlanta Falcons. It was not until police helicopters circled the neighborhood in the early hours of Monday that the quiet street understood the catastrophe behind closed doors.

"She was a spry, retired veterinarian," one neighbor told reporters of Rebecca Schmidt. "She was a friendly person. She'd wave to people."

The Mundelein Police Department, the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, and the Lake County Coroner's Office are continuing the investigation. Police have said the shooting appears to be an isolated incident with no ongoing threat to the public — cold comfort in a village whose crime rate runs roughly 63% below the national average.

Autopsy results and the coroner's final ruling are expected in the coming days.