State Trooper Shot Wife To Death Before She Could Leave Him In Apparent Murder-Suicide

An Illinois state trooper allegedly shot and murdered his wife who was intending to leave him before killing himself earlier this week in an apparent murder-suicide.

Antonio Alvarez, 30, a three-year veteran of the Illinois State Police, and his wife Amanda Alvarez, 31, were found dead inside a “non-department issued” car in Chicago's East Side neighborhood with gunshot wounds to their heads on Monday, Jan. 24, Law & Crime reported.

Law enforcement pronounced them both dead at the scene and recovered a gun from the vehicle.

According to Amanda’s relatives, she was separated from Alvarez at the time of her death. They added that the two were having problems in their marriage and that Amanda was intending to leave him before he proceeded to commit the suspected murder-suicide.

The Cook County Medical Examiner confirmed that Alvarez was the gunman in the killings and ruled his death a suicide and Amanda’s death a homicide, NBC Chicago reported.

Amanda was reportedly working as a pre-kindergarten teacher at Matthew Gallistel Language Academy in Windy City’s East Side neighborhood. She is survived by two children, a one-year-old and a four-year-old.

The murder-suicide has also left the couple's neighbors in shock.

"It's shocking and sad," said Delores Williams, an East Side resident. "This is a nice neighborhood and everybody is friendly, and it's a tragedy."

Meanwhile, the Chicago Police Department’s Area Two Detectives are handling the formal investigation into the incident.

In a similar but unrelated incident, a man identified as Madan Agrawal, 40, allegedly brutally slashed his 32-year-old wife Kiran's throat before going on to knife his toddler children Vrushab, 10; and Tiya, 5; at their rented apartment at Dayanand Park in Jaripatka, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India on Monday, Jan. 17.

After killing all three of the victims, Agrawal killed himself by hanging, Latin Times reported.

On the day of the murder, Agrawal had asked his older brother for money allegedly for an emergency. Officers later found that Agrawal had an outstanding debt of between US$94,056 to US$107,493 (70 to 80 lakh Indian Rupees). It was also found that Agrawal was addicted to cricket betting and had lost a substantial amount of money through gambling.

Officers believe that Kiran was pinned on the bed before Agrawal slit her throat. After killing them, Agrawal allegedly covered the corpses of his wife and children before hanging himself from a ceiling fan inside their home.

Meanwhile, Jaripatka police have registered a case of murder in connection with the incident.