Timothy Eugene Francis, a 20-year veteran detective for the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington D.C., was fatally shot by his wife who also took her own life in what investigators believe is a murder-suicide case.
In a statement, the Charles County Sheriff’s Office said they received a call reporting two bodies had been found in a home in Waldorf on November 27. Authorities said the father of the deceased female – identified as 41-year-old Christina Lynn Francis – found the bodies when he went over to the couple’s home to check up on them after he was unable to get in touch with either of them during the day. Preliminary investigations revealed Christina shot her husband before turning the gun on herself.
“Mourning the loss of our colleague and friend is extremely difficult,” DC Police Chief Peter Newsham said in a statement, according to WUSA. “Detective Francis spent two decades protecting the community from violence, and to learn that he was the victim of a homicide is heartbreaking.”
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Francis, whose father was also a detective, was described by the DC Police Union as a “stand up guy that always held his ground.”
“We are all still reeling from this news. The MPD has lost a true detective today and he will not soon be replaced,” the union tweeted on Saturday.
Hours before the shooting, Francis’s wife shared a video of their 2017 wedding on Facebook with an emotional caption that was marred with spelling mistakes, FOX23 reported. “This day meant everything to me,” she wrote. “This marriage (was) put together for a great (reason).”
She added: “I love you and what we had together. We had six years of experience and memories that should have taken (precedence) over everything (and) everything we did but (we) got lost in petty s**t you believed was a mistake.”
A neighbor who spoke with WUSA said he saw Christina walking her dog over an hour before the shooting. “She had just walked past me walking her dog … and an hour and a half later, we heard the police sirens,” he said.
Another neighbor, who also recently spent time with the couple, described them as “good folks,” adding: “She just shared a piece of cake with me at the gathering, and she was real nice.”
“You never know what people go through,” another neighbor said.
