CINCINNATI -- Patrick Mulcahy thought the six bangs he heard on Coronado Avenue Monday evening might have been fireworks, he said later.
It was Memorial Day, after all -- warm and inviting, the sun beginning to dip in the sky, an American flag flying outside his neighbors' red-brick house. Fireworks would fit right in.
He only realized they were gunshots later, when he stepped outside to discover the flag-flying home ringed with police tape. A woman's body lay in the yard; her husband's was inside with the gun nearby.
"It's scary," Mulcahy said. "You see this stuff on TV, but you never think it's going to happen in your neighborhood like this. Especially somebody you know."
According to Cincinnati police, the pair were a married couple: 51-year-old John Hodgetts and 55-year-old Michelle Hodgetts.
The preliminary investigation indicates John Hodgetts shot his wife and then himself, police said.
Capt. Paul Broxtermann said other neighbors claimed to have heard arguing before the gunfire, adding police received the first calls for assistance around 7:30 p.m.
Mulcahy described them as attentive caretakers to their granddaughter, of whom John Hodgetts had custody.
"You always saw them going out, riding his motorcycle or taking their granddaughter to the beach, Kings Island," he said. "They seemed fine. I never saw them argue a day since they've been over there."
