KAUFMAN, Texas – A North Texas county district attorney and his wife were found dead in their home Saturday, two months after one of his assistant district attorneys was shot to death in a parking lot a block from his office.
Police, FBI agents, Texas Rangers and Kaufman County sheriff’s deputies were investigating the deaths of county District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, sheriff’s Lt. Justin Lewis said late Saturday.
Lewis said he couldn’t discuss the investigation in further detail, including how the couple died and whether authorities believe their deaths are linked to the Jan. 31 fatal shooting of Mark Hasse, an assistant Kaufman County district attorney.
The Dallas Morning News reported that Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh said the McLellands had been shot in their home and that although investigators didn’t know if their deaths and Hasse’s were related, they couldn’t discount it.
“It is a shock,” Aulbaugh said, according to the paper. “It was a shock with Mark Hasse, and now you can just imagine the double shock and until we know what happened, I really can’t confirm that it’s related but you always have to assume until it’s proven otherwise.”