Police are investigating the sudden death of a 53-year-old man and suspicious death of a 48-year-old woman, who was found in a furniture chest inside an apartment block at a Gold Coast suburb in Queensland.
Gold Coast district detective inspector Chris Ahearn said on Saturday morning that the case was being treated as a murder-suicide.
“There is some early indication of the male person being responsible for the death of the female person,” he said.
“At this early stage, we have no indications of a third party being involved. It is a tragic event, and we are pouring significant resources into an expansive investigation of it because we are intent on getting answers for the family as to why and how these two people have died.”
The pair had been in a relationship for 10 years, he said. Their bodies were found in a unit in the Sapphire apartment building in Labrador at about 10.20am on Friday morning. Ahern said they appeared to have been dead for “some period of time”, possibly since the weekend prior.
“There is no domestic violence orders in place and there is suggestion that the male person was also a carer for the female person, so one of the lines of investigation is into the medical condition of the female person, prior to her tragic death,” Ahern said.
“The woman was found inside a furniture chest inside the apartment. We believe she’s been murdered at this stage. There’s some suggestion to point toward that.
“We are currently preparing a report for the coroner, and I would like to just launch an appeal to any person who has seen anything suspicious in recent weeks at the Sapphire apartments in Labrador Street, Labrador, to please come forward and contact CrimeStoppers.”
The woman was yet to be identified, he said.