4 dead in San Mateo home

Officers responded to a call made at 9:13 a.m. Monday by someone requesting a welfare check on the four individuals after growing concerned they hadn’t heard from them in a while, Surratt said during a press briefing Monday afternoon. 

Once on scene, officers surveyed the home and found no signs of forced entry. Officers entered the home and discovered the individuals with “obvious signs of death.” Surratt could not elaborate further on what those signs were or the state of the home given that the investigation is ongoing. He also could not provide a cause of death but said officials believe the deaths were isolated and there’s no active search for a suspect. 

Surratt was also unable to provide descriptions of the four individuals other than to specify the two young minors are boys. He also would neither say whether the individuals were related, nor how the person who initially called in the welfare check was affiliated with the four deceased. He said the only sign they could specify is that the four were not breathing.

Detectives from the San Mateo Police Department were called to the home to continue conducting the investigation, Surratt said, noting it’s moving slowly because detectives intend to be thorough. The San Mateo County Coroner’s Office was also on scene providing support identifying the four deceased and the District Attorney’s Office was notified, he said. No hazmat teams were called to respond, Surratt said. 

An autopsy will be conducted Tuesday morning, he said.

People are asked to avoid the area as officers continue their investigation. As of Monday evening, Alameda de las Pulgas was closed from 42nd to 39th avenues. Residents living near the scene within the enclosed area are being escorted to and from their homes. 

“We just want to make sure we do a thorough investigation to discover or rule out everything,” Surratt said. “All of our officers are talking with everyone and trying to figure out what happened.” 

The last time San Mateo saw four people dead in a home was in 2005. At 4:55 p.m. Aug. 18, 2005, police dispatchers received a phone call from a man who stated police would find a triple homicide and suicide at 1617 Maxine Ave. in San Mateo. When police arrived, they found a note attached to the front door and the body of Tony Richards, 53, in a backyard chair. Police located the bodies of Nicole and 17-year-old Alexa and 13-year-old Tessa in a backyard freezer.

In a four-page letter, Tony Richards confessed to killing his wife and two daughters. He blamed it on mounting financial problems