Two Slain in Pacific Beach Home : Homicide: Investigators say the middle-aged man and woman may have been victims of a burglary attempt.

Police were investigating Wednesday the killings of a man and woman in a quiet Pacific Beach neighborhood during an apparent robbery or burglary.

In a single-family home in the 700 block of Agate Street, police found both bodies--that of a 52-year-old man who rented the house and of a 56-year-old woman described as a good friend of the man, San Diego homicide police Lt. Dan Berglund said.

The woman’s body was discovered lying face down just inside the front door of the home by a friend of the man about 11 a.m. Wednesday, police said. The visitor apparently took a cab to his home, letting herself in with a key, after being unable to reach him by telephone, police and neighbors said.

The man’s body was found lying face up on a bedroom floor minutes later by police called to the scene by the man’s friend, Berglund said. The bedroom was ransacked, indicating a robbery attempt, he said.

Berglund would not reveal the victims’ names until positive identifications were made and their families were notified, he said. He also would not speculate on how long the pair had been dead or the exact cause of death, although he said evidence suggests that the pair had been beaten.

Several neighbors said nothing like this ever happened before on the tranquil, tree-lined Pacific Beach street. The neatly manicured front lawn of the home, complete with a row of flowers fronting the house, evergreen and palm trees in which chirping birds made quiet conversation difficult, suggests a quiet neighborhood.

Yet neighbors may have heard screams during the killings and done nothing about it, police and neighbors said.

Several neighbors told police they heard loud screaming about 10 or 11 p.m. Monday, Berglund said. He said he did not know if anyone called the police.

“The screaming lasted just seconds,” said a neighbor who refused to give his name. He said he and other neighbors came out to their balconies but didn’t call the police because the screaming ended almost as soon as it began, and no one could tell where it came from.

“A couple of people said they heard someone yell for help,” he said. “It was so brief we didn’t know if it was laughter, hollering or what.” The man said another neighbor reported hearing someone running through the courtyard that the two buildings share in the back.

The neighbor said people there often hear loud noises from party-goers returning from the beach.

He said the slain man had moved into the rented house last October or November. He described him as a quiet, almost reclusive man who hardly ever ventured outside his home.