A Murder-Suicide

A man and a woman died in an apparent murder-suicide last night in Altadena. The man was 74-year-old Dominic Vittorio. The woman was his 70-year-old wife, Victoria. The couple had been married for 0 years. !n fact, their 0th anni"ersary occurred #ust a month ago, according to their ne$t-door neighbor, %rs. Allen. The couple was childless and had no close friends. %r. Vittorio was a retired carpenter who had emphysema and was blind in one eye because of a cataract. &is wife was a diabetic who had already had one foot amputated because of complications from the disease. &er eyesight was almost completely gone. 'They were such a nice couple,( said %rs. Allen. '!)"e li"ed ne$t to them for the last *0 years or so. !)m widowed, and Dom always used to help me with things li+e changing light bulbs and fi$ing appliances. They had no +ids, but they were always friendly to the neighborhood +ids. ,"ery &alloween they handed out tons of candy and fresh fruit. -ut about eight years ago Vic+y came down with diabetes, and things #ust ha"en)t been the same for her or Dom. They used to be so friendly and full of life, and then they #ust seemed to get .uieter and .uieter. '/he used to come o"er to my place once or twice a wee+, and we would tal+ about all +inds of things and ha"e the nicest time. -ut that happened less and less as she got sic+er. /o ! would go o"er to her house about once a wee+ and we would tal+. -ut the con"ersations steadily got shorter, and she seemed to lose interest in listening and in tal+ing. /he didn)t say it, but you could tell she was in a lot of pain.( %rs. Allen said she hadn)t e"en tal+ed to either of the Vittorios in almost a year. They ne"er came out. ,"en food was deli"ered to them by a local agency. /he said she heard two gunshots last night0'!t scared me half to death1( /he immediately called the police. '/uch a sad ending for such nice people,( she said. 'Together in sic+ness, but alone in the world.(