2 Men Found Dead in Irvine Condo

IRVINE —  The blood-splattered bodies of two men were found in a gas-filled condominium Tuesday.

“We’re treating it as a homicide scene. We just don’t know if it’s a suicide-homicide or a double-homicide,” said Police Lt. Sam Allevato.

The violence was a rare occurrence in Irvine, routinely placed among the safest cities in the nation. Tuesday’s deaths marked the first killings there this year, police said.

The bodies were discovered about 4:30 p.m. by a man who had arrived with his daughter for a private piano lesson, Allevato said. No one answered the doorbell, but the man smelled natural gas, he said.

The man reached through a window to unlock the door, entered and called police after discovering the piano teacher’s body at the bottom of a stairway. Police later found the second body in a bedroom.

Police had not released the victims’ names.

Allevato said police were delayed in entering the home because of the dense fumes of natural gas.

Investigators believe the wounds might have come from a knife but had not found a weapon. Police also found a trail of blood outside the house that ended about 40 feet away.