Two people found dead of gunshot wounds in a vehicle Saturday morning on a side street in Dolores Heights, initially deemed a double homicide, have now apparently been determined to be victims in a domestic violence-related murder-suicide.
The pair were earlier identified by the Medical Examiner as Susana Robles Desgarennes, 20, and Angel Raygoza, 24, both of San Francisco. Now, as the Bay Area Reporter explains, and as we speculated earlier because of the details of the crime and the gun recovered at the scene, the case is being called a murder-suicide, with Raygoza apparently having killed Desgarennes before turning the gun on himself.
Desgarennes's sister, LGBT activist and San Francisco Youth Commissioner Paola Desgarennes, shared details with the paper, saying that she wanted to raise awareness of domestic violence issues as they relate to San Francisco's housing crisis. "If the city would have more resources for families and housing for women who want to leave [abusive situations]," Paola Desgarennes said, perhaps her sister would still be alive. She implied that her sister was stuck in a dangerous situation with her boyfriend because of the high cost of living in the city.
She further explained that Susana was born in Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico, and was “a mother, entrepreneur, student, and activist" who was an artist and dancer at youth and family organization Loco Bloco, and she had recently been working on her own cosmetics company.
At a Tuesday memorial on Rayburn Street, where the couple was found, mourners gathered to remember Desgarennes, as Mission Local reports. "She had been trying to break off their relationship,” one person tells Mission Local. “Very sad, and to think this is domestic violence awareness month.”
Mission Local also reports via the Police Commission meeting on Wednesday that Chief Bill Scott confirmed "that there is an indication the incident was a murder-suicide." The SFPD still has not issued an official statement on the case.
A GoFundMe campaign has been launched in the name of Desgarennes's four-year-old daughter, whose name is Angel.
This post has been updated to include the Tuesday memorial, and corrected to show the case has not yet been closed.
Previously: Two People Found Dead Of Gunshot Wounds In Dolores Heights