Police Seek Suspect After Firefighters Find Dead Couple, One in Chains

New York|Police Seek Suspect After Firefighters Find Dead Couple, One in Chains

A 77-year-old man and 78-year-old woman were discovered dead inside a Queens home on Monday after a man entered the house and set it ablaze, according to the police.

Emergency medical workers pronounced them dead at the home, a small two-story house in Bellerose, Queens.

The authorities have not released the victims’ names, and no arrests have been made in connection with their killing, the police said on Tuesday.

According to preliminary information from the police, a man, who has not yet been identified, entered the home on Monday and set it on fire while the pair was inside. The man had come to the house at around 10 a.m., entering through the back after the 77-year-old man opened a door, according to an internal police document obtained by The New York Times.

Just after 3 p.m., the man left the house, and by 3:22 p.m. the house’s fire alarm was ringing, the internal document said.

The pair’s son, a paramedic who was off duty, was alerted to the fire by his parents’ neighbors, according to the document. He rushed to the house, along with police officers and firefighters, who put out the blaze.

Inside the house, officers discovered the 78-year old woman, lying unconscious on the first floor. In the basement, they found the 77-year old man chained to the a wall with signs of trauma on his body, according to the police and the internal document.

Many circumstances of the deaths remained murky on Tuesday, including the events that preceded the fire.

The city’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner will determine the pair’s exact cause of death, the police said.

Chelsia Rose Marcius contributed reporting.