Santa Rosa police investigating homicide after 4 people found dead inside home

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (KGO) -- Santa Rosa police are working into the night Wednesday in a senior community where four bodies were discovered in a home, on the 200 block of Monarch Court during a welfare check on Wednesday.

"When officers arrived, they were able to enter the home through a window after which they located four deceased individuals," said Sgt. Patricia Seffens of the Santa Rosa Police Department.

Neighbors we spoke with say they would have never imagined that something like this, would happen here.

"To hear that they found four bodies inside the home, what is your reaction?" asked ABC7 News reporter J.R. Stone.

"Nothing - scared, scared," responded neighbor Henry McClain.

"Shocking, it was shocking. My first thought when I heard that there were four bodies, I thought maybe carbon monoxide and then another person later that was out here talking with a bunch of us, she said it wasn't carbon monoxide, somebody reported gunshots prior to," said neighbor Geri Tapparo.

Officers though would not say if a gun was used or fired, only saying there is currently no threat to the community.

As to the specific circumstances that led to these four deaths, police are still trying to figure that out.

"This is a homicide investigation. We definitely have at least one victim of homicide. In all of 2024 we only had two homicides, so this is a completely unusual and very tragic incident," said Sgt. Seffens.

Emergency crews found two dogs and two cats that were all still alive inside the home.

Officers say it appears the bodies, all of which were adults, had been in there for "at least two days."

"I asked the paramedic, I said, can you tell us anything about what's going on? He said, all I can tell you is it's bad," said Tapparo who lives across the street. While she didn't know the people inside, she says there was a renter, that person's caregiver, and two other people. She says that recently, she had seen officers at the house.

"You can see right out our kitchen window and they came in, no lights, pulled in, went inside, stayed for a little while and came out - that's happened a couple times," said Tapparo.

Police though wouldn't tell us why they had previously been to that home.