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San Diego police investigating death of woman in Mission Valley

SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) — Police are investigating a mysterious death in Mission Valley. A woman reported missing was found murdered at a her office on Saturday.  After her daughter found out about he...

SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) — Police are investigating a mysterious death in Mission Valley. A woman reported missing was found murdered at her office on Saturday after her daughter found out about her death, police say she then committed suicide. 

Distraught the day after discovering her grandmother dead in her Mission Valley office and then having her aunt killed shortly after, a local woman is trying to cope. 

She asked that News 8 not show her face or use her name. 

"I don't think everyone fully understands that we lost two people. We lost my grandmother and my aunt," said the relative of the two women. "I don't even know how to feel, I was so sad yesterday I couldn't even breathe yesterday." 

She says she went to her grandmother 66-year-old Maria Kelly's office where she did taxes.  

She says she, her grandfather and her mother showed up Saturday afternoon looking for Kelly who had been missing since Thursday. She says they unlocked a file closet door and found her grandmother stuffed in there with a gunshot wound. 

"When we opened that door we never expected to find her," the woman said. "That's an image that I wish I could just erase from my head forever." 

After the discovery of the victim dead inside her office, more relatives began to arrive and the victim's granddaughter says that's when her aunt came. She says her aunt went to a nearby building and police say that is where she killed herself." 

"Maybe she was just so upset that she couldn't deal with it the fact that her mom was gone," said her niece.  

It's a homicide and suicide investigation that has been difficult for even investigators to process. 

"I can't remember a case where we had a murder and a family member's ended up taking their life," said San Diego Police Department Lt. Mike Holden. 

Just a little over an hour after learning her mother was dead, family says Crystal Vasquez was the woman who took her life with a gun. 

"At this time she is not a suspect," said Lt. Holden. "We don't know what the motive is. It could absolutely be a case of stress or finding out that her mother is dead." 

Family want to know what the motive of the murder. 

"We're just hoping we get answers honestly," said Kelly's granddaughter and Vasquez's niece. "My grandmother deserves justice. We need to know who did this to her." 

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family with funeral expenses for both women.   

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