Woman Sends Husband on Errand, Kills Father, Daughter, Then Herself, Cops Say

After sending her husband on an errand, a woman who had been emotionally distraught in recent weeks used a shotgun Wednesday to kill her father, her 10-year-old daughter and herself at their home in western New York, authorities say.

Penelope Luddy, 53, persuaded her husband, Michael, to go visit a sick relative at about 8:30 a.m., Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn said. When he returned just over an hour later, he found his wife dead and his daughter and father-in-law mortally wounded in the basement.

Her father, Harold Bertram, 79, managed to tell sheriff's deputies before he died that "she had shot both the daughter and him prior to taking her life," O'Flynn said.

Both Bertram and the girl, Alexandra, were shot twice at the single-family home on a quiet cul-de-sac in a hilly section of Perinton, a suburb southeast of Rochester. They were pronounced dead at a hospital.

Luddy had been "extremely distraught" for the last few weeks and may have been undergoing treatment, the Monroe County sheriff said, but he declined to elaborate except to say that "the family had been concerned."

She did not leave a note, he said.

Her husband, who is 57, called 911 when he returned home. "He has been very cooperative and ... is sharing whatever information he has," O'Flynn said.

Both Penelope and Michael Luddy obtained pistol permits in September but police were unable to find any record of either of them buying a gun, O'Flynn said. The weapon she used was a 12-gauge shotgun for which no permit is required, he said.

It's unclear who owned the shotgun, O'Flynn said.

There were signs of a struggle in the finished basement where Luddy's father had been living for some years, investigators said.

Bertram's injuries "were very severe so he was very limited in the amount (of information) he could provide to us" at the home and in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, said sheriff's Lt. Michael Fowler.

Luddy typically drove her daughter, a fifth grader, to her elementary school in the nearby suburb of Pittsford shortly after 9 a.m. each morning. Counselors were on hand at the school to provide help to fellow students as well as faculty and staff.