5 Members Of Turkish Family of Armenian origin Found Dead In US
Today’s Zaman
May 30, 2008
The decomposed bodies found last weekend in an oceanside home were
identified Tuesday as three generations of a Turkish family.
Manas Uçar, 58, and his wife, Margrit, 48, immigrated from Turkey
years ago, and their twin 21-year-old daughters, Margo and Grace, had
just completed bachelor degrees in biology. The fifth victim, the
family’s maternal grandmother, 72-year-old Fransuhi Kesisoglu, was a
legal resident, said Lt. Erin Giudice, spokeswoman for the Orange
County sheriff. Turkish news reports said the family was of Armenian
origin.
Deputies had visited the home overlooking the Pacific twice in the
past two weeks, prompted by calls from a concerned neighbor and
worried relatives. But deputies found nothing suspicious, and the
callers conceded the family may have taken a vacation. On Sunday, two
brothers forced their way into the house, only to discover the bodies.
Giudice said neither homicide nor suicide had been ruled out, but she
stressed that the community was not in danger and no suspects were
being sought. Autopsies are not yet complete and toxicology results
could take up to eight weeks, she said.
Manas and Margrit Uçar were found in a downstairs closet, with two
handguns near the bodies. One of the handguns was registered to
Margrit Uçar and both husband and wife were shot, Giudice said. The
daughters and grandmother were found in the attached bedroom and the
twins were in the bed, she said. Their bodies were too decomposed to
identify any gunshot wounds. Because the house was built into a cliff,
the bedroom suite where the bodies were found was below ground level,
shielded from view and well-insulated, Giudice said. "Everything was
closed up," she said. "The family and the neighborhood thought they
were on vacation."
Margo and Grace Uçar both finished work toward bachelor degrees in
biology at the University of California, San Diego, this past winter,
said Pat Jacoby, a spokeswoman for the university. Manas Uçar came to
the United States in the 1970s and was on the Syracuse University
faculty about five years, said Eugene Drucker, a retired Syracuse
professor who supervised Manas Uçar’s doctoral dissertation in
mechanical engineering. Uçar’s wife, Margrit, also immigrated from
Turkey and received her US citizenship in 1987 while in Syracuse,
according to an article in the newspaper The Post-Standard.
Manas Uçar became a consulting engineer after leaving the university,
then moved to California in the mid-1990s, Drucker said. The Web site
law.com lists Uçar as an expert on accident reconstruction,
specializing in fires, explosions and seat belt use.
29 May 2008, AP SAN CLEMENTE