LONG BEACH, Calif. – Police in Long Beach, Calif., are investigating a murder and attempted suicide after the body of a young girl was found next to a wounded man in a pool of blood outside a church parking lot.
The grim discovery was made at about 11:00am local time Saturday by Nancy Eormurian, who spotted the girl -- believed to be about nine years old -- beside a bloody man outside the Los Altos United Methodist Church, KTTV reported.
The girl, who had cuts to her chest, was dead, while the man -- believed by authorities to be the girl's father or stepfather -- had self-inflicted wounds but was conscious, police said.
"I realized, 'This is not good,' and I saw the blood," Eormurian told the TV station. "They were both right next to each other."
She added, "I did walk over to him and said, 'Do you know who she is?' ... and he said something like, 'Other daughter.' And then he's gotten up to walk away ... and I said, 'You need to come back' ... and he kind of looked at me -- I never felt threatened or anything -- and he came back toward me, towards the parking lot, and at that point, the paramedics showed up."
Paramedics who attended the scene said the man was babbling about life becoming too overwhelming.
The container next to where the bodies were found was covered in graffiti, which investigators think was written in the girl's blood, KTTV reported.
"Two bodies were found at that location. One was determined deceased, the other [person] was transported to a local hospital," news website Patch reported, citing an email from Long Beach Police Department spokeswoman Nancy Pratt.
The man, who is in stable condition, was arrested on suspicion of murder.
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