Petaluma couple identified in double death case

Two people found dead last week in a rural Petaluma home were identified as homeowners Mark and Terri Edington, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.

Their badly decomposed bodies were discovered May 7 in the Roblar Road home while sheriff’s deputies were doing a welfare check. The Sonoma County Coroner’s Office used dental records to ?identify the couple.

Sheriff’s officials haven’t provided further details on the nature of the violent deaths - whether the 60-year-old man and his wife, 56, were victims of a double homicide or a murder-suicide. Officials previously said the deaths were suspicious and that detectives were treating them as possible homicides until they could rule out all possibilities.

Forensic testing was underway to determine how the couple died, sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Spencer Crum said.

No other details were available Tuesday.

A concerned relative called for help May 7, saying she hadn’t heard from her sister or brother-in-law in about a month, the Sheriff’s Office said. The woman previously had gone to the home to check on the couple and noticed excessively tall grass and mail piling up in the mailbox.

Deputies found the bodies in a back room, a few feet apart. Officials have declined to say whether a weapon was found or divulge other details.

It appeared the bodies had been there at least a couple of weeks, officials said.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 707-521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@rossmannreport.