The Edmonton Police Service’s Homicide Section is investigating the suspicious deaths of two people on the city’s south side.
At around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, police said they attended a residence in the area of 111 Street and 78 Avenue “under suspicious circumstances.”
Two people were found dead in the home. Their deaths are being treated as suspicious, police said in a news release Thursday morning.
Cheryl Sheppard, a spokesperson with the EPS, said she was not able to say how police received information about the incident, but added they were “alerted to the residence… under suspicious circumstances.”
“We’re definitely looking at this as suspicious. We are very early on in the investigation so at this point, we don’t have anyone in custody but we are looking at is as a suspicious matter,” Sheppard said.
Adam Hennebery has been staying with his girlfriend who lives next door. He said they saw the police cordon off the neighbour’s property on Wednesday night.
“We were pretty curious. Then one of the police officers came up to the door and asked us some questions about what happened — just basically if we knew anything about the neighbours,” he explained.
“We kind of asked what happened. All he could say was that it was a major issue and that we would be hearing about it on the news. He couldn’t say.”
Hennebery said he doesn’t know who lives next door. He said he saw a man in the backyard on Wednesday with a couple of dogs.
“I walked right by him, got in my car and drove off. When I came back later last night, his dog was outside loose, barking. And that’s when a couple ladies came up and decided to call animal control. And I think that’s kind of when they realized that something wasn’t right,” he explained.
Hennebery said the situation makes him and his girlfriend a little worried.
“I thought this was a safe neighbourhood. To hear that something like this happened is pretty worrisome, a little scary for sure,” he said. “It’s crazy, it’s wild.”
On Thursday morning, the home in the McKernan neighbourhood remained cordoned off by police tape and officers were at the scene.
Sheppard was not sure if the people who were found dead were residents of the home.
Autopsies have been scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.
No details were released about the victims or how they died.
Anyone who witnesses suspicious activity in the area is asked to call the EPS at 780-423-4567 or #377 from a mobile phone. Anonymous information can be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online.