‘This is a tragedy’: Elderly Overland Park couple dies in possible murder-suicide

Officers in Overland Park responded to a shooting Thursday and found an elderly couple dead at the scene in what police said may be a murder-suicide.

Police responded to a call just before 9:15 a.m. when a man said his wife had been shot in the 8400 block of England Street, said Officer John Lacy, a spokesman for the Overland Park Police Department. When officers arrived at the scene, they found both the caller and his wife dead. Both died of gunshot wounds.

“This is a tragedy,” Lacy said.

The woman was bedridden and may have been in hospice care, Lacy said. Both the man and woman were in their 80s.

John Gronberg said he lived near the couple for a long time and spent time doing repairs and constructing items with his neighbor. Gronberg and his wife were away Thursday morning, but were “devastated” when they learned the news after driving home to find police tape and police cars surrounding his neighbors’ home.

Gronberg said both his neighbors had declining health, and the man had looked into nursing home information.

He never thought something like this would happen.

“Not in their character,” he said.

Another neighbor, who did not want to be identified, described the couple as loving but more withdrawn as the wife’s health declined in the past few years.

But you could see by the way he took care of her, he really loved his wife, the neighbor said.

This story was originally published June 23, 2022 at 10:12 AM.