Eagle River murder-suicide leaves a question of motive

The victim was identified Wednesday afternoon as Laura Soliz, 48. She and the shooter, Susan Peterson, 63, had moved to Alaska together about eight years ago, police said.

Though they found no suicide note in the home in the 10100 block of Caribou Street, police said what happened was clear. The why, however, remained a mystery.

"Based on observations at the scene, it's pretty clear that it's a murder-suicide," homicide Detective John Foraker said. "There's no indication that there's anybody else responsible for what occurred inside the residence."

Their bodies were discovered just before 7 p.m. by a patrol officer conducting a welfare check on the women after one family called police. No one had heard from the women and they didn't show up for work on Tuesday.

"It was uncharacteristic for either of them to be absent from their respective workplaces without notifying their employers," police Lt. Dave Parker said.

Police had responded earlier in the day, about noon, but found nothing amiss at the home where the women lived. The insistence of the family that something was wrong led the officer to enter the home on the second stop, Foraker said. The women's bodies were found inside, apparently dead only a short time.

Police would not reveal what kind of weapon was used, but said it was either a rifle or shotgun.

Police were still trying to piece together what happened and why. People who knew the women reported seeing them alive the day before and, as far as Foraker knew, offered police no insight into any problems between them.

Homicide unit supervisor Sgt. Slawomir Markiewicz said the victim's family from Michigan was in shock at the news and was planning to come to town. Police had not yet notified the family of the shooter.

The shooting was characterized as domestic violence because the women lived together, he said.

"We know that they were roommates, that they lived together at that residence. But again, they can't be interviewed so we can't get the exact nature of their relationship," Markiewicz said. "It's my understanding that they did work together at one time, but that they worked in different places now."

At the scene Wednesday afternoon, neighbors said the pair seemed nice but were quiet and kept to themselves. Their next-door neighbor didn't know their names.

The front yard of the single-family ranch home, which sits in the shadow of the bronze-faded Chugach Mountains, was well-kept. The blinds were drawn and the driveway was empty.

Soliz's family said she moved up from Ovid, Mich., years ago but declined to comment further, saying the death was too fresh.

According to a profile Soliz posted on the Classmates.com she was a longtime employee at K-Mart when she transferred to Kenai from Michigan in 2001. She later took a job at Home Depot and, as of the writing, was the regional human resources manager for Alaska, her profile says. She wrote that she has a daughter, a son-in-law and a number of grandchildren.

"I don't get to see them very often and if anything can bring me back to Michigan, it will be these little guys," she wrote.

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.