A worker who escaped a clothing boutique in San Clemente before a gunman walked in and fatally shot the owner and then himself Saturday later identified the deceased as a married couple that was going through a nasty divorce.
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The couple was identified by Lt. Jeff Hallock, the Orange County sheriff's spokesman, as John Patrick Dillard, 59, and Cynthia Jean Rosier, 64, both of San Clemente.
The unidentified worker ran out of Bliss Boutique, 167 Avenida Del Mar, and told witnesses that Dillard walked in with a handgun and dragged Rosier to a back room–and disclosed the couple was going through a nasty divorce.
A sheriff's SWAT team later entered the shop and discovered the couple, both dead. “Investigators believe Dillard entered the Bliss Clothing Boutique with a handgun, shot and killed Rosier before turning the weapon on himself,” Hallock says in a statement. “No other employees of the business were injured.”
The investigation continues, and anyone with information is asked to call deputies at 714.647.7000 or leave anonymous tips with Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855.847.6227 (855-TIP-OCCS) or via occrimestoppers.org.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.