The shooting deaths of a 19-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man in a Walnut Creek home Tuesday morning appear to be the result of a murder-suicide, police said.
The Contra Costa County coroner's office identified the people who died as Walnut Creek resident Clare Orton and Lafayette resident Scott Bertics. Police said Bertics, who had a previous relationship with Orton, allegedly shot her and then took his own life.
Officers responded at 6:50 a.m. to a home in the north Homestead neighborhood on a report of shots fired.
Walnut Creek police Lt. Lanny Edwards declined to give a specific street where the incident occurred but said it was between Ygnacio Valley Road and Danforth Lane.
Officers arrived and found the pair dead from apparent gunshot wounds. The shooting occurred at the house where Orton lived with her family, police said.
Although the investigation is ongoing, police said the evidence so far indicates it was a murder-suicide.
Orton graduated last year from Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek. She was on break after her freshman year studying environemental engineering at San Diego State University.
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Bertics was a member of Acalanes High School track and field team in Lafayette. He graduated high school in 2012 and was enrolled at Stanford University.
Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to contact Walnut Creek police at 925-943-5844.
NBC Bay Area's Cheryl Hurd contributed to this report.
