Double-murder suicide in Rancho Peñasquitos

A man shot a woman and a 6-year-old boy, then himself in what San Diego police called a double-murder suicide in Rancho Peñasquitos Tuesday morning.

Authorities did not release their names or their relationships to one another.

A friend asked police to check on the High Park Lane house near Ridley Road about 11:15 a.m., after not hearing from the family for two days, homicide Lt. Paul Rorrison said.

Officers knocked at the front door, and when no one answered, they went to check the back of the house. The officers looked through one of the back windows and saw a dead woman in her 40s lying in the kitchen, Rorrison said.

They got into the house through a sliding-glass door that was already open slightly and searched the rest of the home. The officers found the bodies of a man in his 50s and the 6-year-old boy in an upstairs bedroom.

All were shot in the upper body, the lieutenant said.

“It’s tragic,” Rorrison said.

He said it wasn’t clear how long the three had been dead, but the Medical Examiner’s Office will try to determine that. No neighbors reported hearing any gunshots, Rorrison said.

Police had a section of the street blocked off all day.

Investigators obtained a search warrant and were at the house until about 7:30 p.m.