The State Bureau of Investigation is reviewing the deaths of a Fayetteville police officer and his wife in an apparent murder-suicide, according to a news release issued Wednesday.
Fayetteville Police Chief Kemberle Braden asked the SBI to investigate the deaths of Domingo Tavarez-Rodriguez, 53, an officer with the Fayetteville Police Department, and his wife, Yenitza Arroyo-Tavarez, 44.
The two were found dead from gunshot wounds in their residence on Friday.
The SBI said in a news release that the preliminary investigation indicates the couple died in a murder-suicide.
According to a preliminary autopsy report from the medical examiner’s office, Arroyo-Tavarez died as a result of multiple gunshot wounds and Tavarez-Rodriguez died from a single gunshot wound, the news release said. The medical examiner’s preliminary findings say there is no reason to believe anyone else was involved in the shootings and there is no threat to the community or law enforcement officers.
The couple were found dead of gunshot wounds inside a home in the 1300 block of Vandenberg Drive on Friday evening, according to Police Chief Kemberle Braden.
Police supervisors were sent to the home after Tavarez-Rodriguez failed to show up for work, Braden said in a statement Friday night.
Braden said at a news conference that Tavarez-Rodriguez was scheduled to begin work at 6 p.m. Friday. He said Tavarez-Rodriguez was retired from the military and had been with the Police Department since June 2021.
