A.V. DEATHS BELIEVED TO BE MURDER-SUICIDE.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

PALMDALE - The shooting deaths of a man and a woman whose bodies were found on a Palmdale residential street have been preliminarily ruled a murder-suicide, homicide detectives said Monday.

Investigators said it appears Efrain Lobato, 48, shot Rosa Hernandez, 44, several times and then shot himself once in the chest, detectives said.

``Everything is consistent with murder-suicide,'' Lt. Al Grotefend said. ``He had a contact gunshot wound to the chest, and her gunshot wounds were at close range. All the rounds are accounted for. The gun was at his feet.''

Grotefend said the motive for the shootings was not known. The couple had lived together for about 10 years in Palmdale, about a half-mile from where their bodies were found.

``We are still looking into that. Investigators are talking to family and co-workers,'' Grotefend said.

Lobato was found Friday in the passenger seat of a Toyota sport utility vehicle that had backed over a curb in the 200 block of East Avenue R-9, and Hernandez was found lying dead in the street after apparently leaving blood on the driveway and garage door at the house next door.

Investigators were still awaiting some test results before making a final determination on whether it was a murder-suicide, Grotefend said.

Grotefend said Lobato had picked up Hernandez from her job at a local McDonald's about 10:30 p.m. Friday. ``That's the last contact anyone had with them,'' Grotefend said. ``A neighbor heard a sound of a horn about 11:30 p.m.''

The deaths were discovered about 4 a.m. by a resident leaving for work. Neighbors said they had heard a car horn honking, or maybe a car alarm, in the middle of the night but did not hear gunshots.

They ignored the horn, thinking it was a young man who lives on the street coming home late, or his friends.

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

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