Police Look for Suspects in Double-Murder

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This story kinda got pushed aside b/c it was almost identical to another story that happebned at almost the same time so everyone was confused and thought it was the same story. Police Investigate Possible Murder-Suicide

Detroit Police say the deaths of a young couple on the city's west side may be a murder-suicide.

It happened in the area of Santa Rosa and Fullerton. Officers say the couple's bodies were found in separate bedrooms of their upstairs flat. Both had been shot to death. Two children, a 3-year-old boy and a 1-month-old girl, were inside the house at the time.

Family members say the deaths were discovered when a relative called the house. The 3-year-old answered the phone and said that his "momma" was dead.

The case is currently being treated as a murder-suicide. However, family members say they don't believe that's the case. They say they believe an intruder killed the man and woman. However, they say the murders may have something to do with the lifestyle of the male victim.

Parents' Slaying
Children's Parents Found Shot To Death --

Detroit police discovered the bodies of a 23-year-old woman and her 37-year-old live-in boyfriend on the city's west side after the couple's toddler answered the phone and alerted family members that something had happened.

"What we do know is that family members were calling this morning and the phone was answered by the 3-year-old, who expressed that something was wrong," said Detroit Deputy Police Chief James Tolbert.

Jeanette Culpepper said she went to Mylisa Townsend's home on Santa Rosa Street at about 9 a.m. and discovered that her daughter and her boyfriend, Vashaun Peterson, had been shot to death.

Initially, police were not sure if the double shooting was a result of a murder-suicide, but since no weapon was found, police are now investigating the case as a double homicide.

The couple's 3-year-old son and 2-month-old daughter were at the home during the double fatal shooting but they were not injured. Police said they believe the toddler may have witnessed his mother's slaying.

" All we knew is my grandson answered the phone and said, 'My mama is dead,'" said Culpepper.

It's unknown when the couple was killed and how long the children were in the home with the bodies for.

The children were taken into protective custody, but Culpepper said she will fight to win custody of them.

Culpepper had said she feared the deaths were result of a murder suicide because the couple had a history of domestic violence.

"Earlier on, he did pull her hair out one day last year," said Culpepper.

However, Culpepper said recently, it seemed like the couple was getting along better.

"As far as I know, she was getting ready to move and they were looking for houses. I talked to her the other day and she said she had found one. As far as I know, everything seemed fine," said Culpepper.

"It seemed like they were happy. They just had a newborn," said Neighbor Booker Braziel.

Townsend was a drug store clerk, but she was off on maternity leave.

"She loved her family. If anyone needed anything she would help them. Her heart was good," said Culpepper.

A police investigation continues. Police have not released a possible motive for the shooting or suspect description.

DETROIT (WXYZ) - D

etroit police now believe what was first thought to be a murder-suicide was, in fact, a double murder.

When a three year old boy told concerned relatives on the telephone “my momma is dead” around 10:00 a.m. this morning, there was immediate concern that 37-year-old VaShawn Peterson was responsible for fatally shooting his 23-year-old girlfriend Myisa Townsend, and then turning the gun on himself.

When police homicide investigators searched the second-floor flat on Santa Rose street, they did not find a weapon.

They now believe that VaShawn, who was known as a backyard mechanic in the neighborhood, may have angered an associate, who somehow found his way inside the couple's home. Their 3-year-old son and 2-month-old daughter were not harmed.

http://www.wxyz.com/news/story/Polic...DlqCKdWOQ.cspx

[Whisper]

This has taken a weird turn,the man Vashuan Peterson, 37, is from here Windsor.

When the gunfire stopped, a three-year-old boy and his infant sister were left alone with their murdered parents’ bodies.

Detroit police are investigating the slaying of Vashuan Peterson, 37, from Windsor, and his girlfriend Mylisa Townsend, 23, after the little boy answered the phone Tuesday morning to tell a stunned relative his parents were dead.
It was Detroit’s second double murder in 24 hours in which a mother and her boyfriend were murdered, and two young children were abandoned with the bodies.

Peterson and Townsend were found dead shortly after 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. The bodies were in separate rooms of a house in the 12300 block of Santa Rosa in Detroit. Townsend had been shot in the head, Peterson in the neck.
“The child was unable to get an adult to the phone,” he said.

Cook said he didn’t know how long the two had been dead or if the three-year-old witnessed the murders. Police also had no suspects or motive Thursday. The children weren’t hurt.

It wasn’t clear Thursday how long Peterson had been living in Detroit. But he was well known to police on this side of the border.

Peterson was sentenced to 18 months in reformatory after pleading guilty to aggravated assault for biting off part of a Windsor police officer’s ear in 1994.

Court heard during Peterson’s sentencing that Windsor cop Kyle Hartley was off duty and driving down Glengarry Avenue when he noticed two men on the street who appeared to be fighting. He couldn’t pass through an intersection because several people were blocking the road.

Hartley hit the horn and tried to get by, but as he passed the group he heard a thump on the side of his car.

He got out to see what the problem was. One of the men who had been fighting said, “You’re the (expletive) problem. Get back in your car and get the (expletive) out of here.”

Hartley told them he was a police officer. He eventually returned to his car but couldn’t drive away because the group had it surrounded. Hartley got out again. That was when they turned on him. Someone punched him in the mouth. He punched back.

Hartley was attacked again, suffering kicks and punches before Peterson bit off part of his ear. Hartley was taken to hospital but doctors couldn’t reattach the ear.

Three years before that, Peterson was sentenced to four months in jail for a similar assault. In December 1991, he bit off another man’s ear during a fight.

In 1997, Peterson was charged with aggravated assault causing bodily harm after the shooting death of a man in London during a knife fight. Another man was charged with second degree murder for pulling the trigger during the fight, which involved six to 10 people.

http://www.windsorstar.com/technolog...704/story.html Moses Jimenez, a Detroit homicide detective, talks to friends and family of Vashuan Peterson, a Windsor man who, with his girlfriend Mylisa Townsend, 23, were found murdered in a home on Santa Rosa Avenue in Detroit, on Tuesday, March 2, 2010.