Police: double fatality in Davie home murder-suicide

DAVIE, Fla. (WSVN) -- Investigators are calling the deaths of a husband and wife a murder-suicide, after police found them inside their home Wednesday morning.

Davie Police have officially determined that Jerold Hoffer, 65, shot and killed his wife Marilyn Ann Mass, 57, before turning the gun on himself. Police arrived at their home, located at 2811 Morning Glory Lane, just after 10 a.m. Wednesday, after a concerned family member told them he had not heard form Hoffer since Monday.

Police were quick to not alarm residents of the quiet community of Forest Ridge as they investigated throughout the morning and into the late afternoon. "Residents do not have anything to fear from this incident. It by no way is anything other than something that occurred within the residence, due to obviously a couple, between a husband and wife," explained Davie Police Sgt. Rob Choquette.

Regardless, Dianne Weinstein was shocked to hear the news of death in her neighborhood. "I'm not sure what happened to these people, but I would venture to say it was something unusual cause it's just too shocking," she said.

When police entered the house, they found the husband dead with a gunshot to his head and his wife also had a bullet to the head. In a press release, police detailed what happened on the night of the murder-suicide, which was sometime after 7 p.m. Monday, when Mass had returned from work and begun preparing a meal. Police said she was in the middle of making dinner when Hoffer shot her in the head.

Police said Mass had served Hoffer with divorce papers back in September. "There was a divorce in process," Choquette noted. "They found paperwork inside the residence alluding to that."

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