Sheriff: Family Members Found Dead in California All Wearing Black

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. – Five decomposed bodies found over the holiday weekend in an upscale Orange County home were all wearing black clothing, a sheriff's spokeswoman said Wednesday.

The bodies — three generations of the same Turkish-American family — were found last Sunday when two brothers broke into the house after not hearing from them for some time. Investigators believe the bodies went undiscovered for between two to three weeks.

The dead are mechanical engineer and expert trial witness Manas Ucar, 58; his wife, Margrit, 48; their twin 21-year-old daughters, Margo and Grace, and the family's maternal grandmother, 72-year-old Fransuhi Kesisoglu. Margrit Ucar would have turned 49 on Sunday.

Authorities have not ruled out homicide or suicide and are awaiting autopsy results and toxicology tests before announcing the cause of death. Autopsies are still incomplete, and because the bodies were so badly decomposed it could take up to eight weeks to complete toxicology tests, Giudice said.

When asked whether investigators are looking into the possibility the deaths could have been planned together by the family, Giudice replied: "We are certainly looking into all aspects and all possibilities. That's why we want to be really careful when we talk about murder-suicide."

Manas and Margrit Ucar were found in a downstairs closet attached to a bedroom, with two handguns near the bodies. One of the handguns was registered to Margrit Ucar and both husband and wife were shot, Giudice said. Giudice didn't know who the second handgun was registered to.

The twin daughters and grandmother were found in the attached bedroom. The twins were in the bed and the grandmother was on a chaise-lounge, Giudice said.

Deputies had conducted two welfare checks on the home in the past two weeks, but found nothing suspicious from the outside and left after a neighbor and relatives said the family might be on vacation.

There were no signs of a struggle in the house and nothing had been taken.

Manas Ucar was a mechanical engineer who immigrated from Turkey in the 1970s and later started his own company as an accident reconstruction consultant. Margrit Ucar owned a jewelry boutique at a ritzy mall in nearby Newport Beach, a neighbor told KDOC-TV.

Their daughters had finished work toward their bachelor's of science in biology at the University of California, San Diego, this past winter.

Sea Pointe Estates, where the family lived, is an exclusive, gated community of about 75 upscale homes on a hill near the coast in San Clemente. It's about 65 miles southeast of Los Angeles at the southern edge of Orange County. The family's home overlooks the Pacific Ocean and is worth about $1.7 million, according to the real estate Web site Zillow.com.