2 Cousins Found Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide After Alleged Dispute Over Home Sale

Two men in New York City have died in an apparent murder-suicide that was allegedly related to a dispute over the sale of their family home.

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) confirmed to PEOPLE that officers were called to a home in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens at around 11:45 p.m. local time on Friday, Oct. 3, after receiving reports of a gunshot.

Police discovered that two men, ages 37 and 41, had sustained gunshot wounds to the head. Emergency medical personnel pronounced the 37-year-old dead at the scene, and transported the 41-year-old to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A firearm was found near the older man, police told the New York Daily News.

Relatives and police sources who spoke with the Daily News and the New York Post said that the two men were cousins who were in a dispute over the sale of their family’s home and how much money each person would receive after it was sold.

According to the outlets, the two-bedroom Queens home had been on the market for about one month and had an asking price of $600,000.

“It was an issue with the sale of the house, some disagreement with how the money was going to be divided up,” a 62-year-old man — the uncle of the two men — told the Post.

The shooter was in charge of selling the house, and his younger cousin was assisting him with the sale, said the relative, who asked not to be identified.

According to the pair’s uncle, the older man had given his younger cousin the power of attorney to sell the house because of his background in real estate, but the two began arguing over the sale.

“It had something to do with the sale of the house,” the relative added to the outlets. “It was something to do with the distribution of money.”

The uncle, who lives in the basement of the home and found the younger man dead, said he believes that the shooter may have been inside the house with his cousin’s body for several hours before he turned the gun on himself.

The uncle first realized that there was something wrong when the younger victim’s longtime partner said she had been waiting outside for him for several hours.

“She said [his] truck is here and I haven’t heard from him since 11 a.m.,” one neighbor told the Daily News. “I said, ‘I don’t know, but the truck has been there since [noon].’ ”

The pair entered the house to find it “already dark,” and that’s when they discovered the younger victim’s body.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.          

“We had to go around into the living room area,” the uncle recalled to the Daily News. “When she put the light on, she saw [her partner’s] body lying against the door.”

“She sees him. She screams. She starts crying,” he continued. “He wasn’t moving. He must’ve been there a while.”

The relative added that he and the woman left the house because they were concerned that the shooter was still inside.

“I grabbed her and I said, ‘We gotta get out of here because he’s probably still in here,’ ” the uncle recalled, per the Post. “She said she heard something coming from upstairs. When we were coming out, we heard the gunshot.” 

The NYPD has not publicly identified the two men, and they confirmed to PEOPLE that the investigation is still ongoing.

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health challenges, emotional distress, substance use problems, or just needs to talk, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org 24/7.