The sons did it.
That was the conclusion of Beachwood Police Tuesday in the murder of a podiatrist.
Chief Gary Haba said Dr. Richard Warn was not even dead 48 hours before his wife returned from an overseas trip and discovered him in the upstairs of their home shot several times.
Reaching out to next of kin, they spoke to Warn’s grown daughter, but not his sons.
Michael and Mark Warn, ages 31 and 29, lived together in a home in South Euclid and were persons of interest in the case.
When officers arrived at their home Friday night, they brought SWAT. Shots fired from a window led to a 12-hour standoff and the brothers would not leave alive.
“Negotiators were on scene and many attempts were made to contact the occupants to have them surrender peacefully. Contact was never established,” Chief Haba said. “The cause of death for both was determined to be suicide.”
Police concluded “one or both of them” killed their father, though they do not know which one, and they do not have a motive.
The brothers had no criminal past, though some neighbors said they had a history of calling police on petty noise complaints.
Chief Haba does not believe they had even seen their dad in weeks, if not months.
It is also unclear whether they knew he would be home last week. Haba said Warn was supposed to be on vacation with his wife, but came back early when he was not feeling well.
Neighbors described the brothers as "paranoid," and seemingly over-reliant on their father, who divorced their mother 15 years ago.
Dad paid for everything," Marian Werfel said. I asked the mailman, don't you even deliver ever to that house? He said, 'Nope'."
Haba said barring unforeseen circumstances, there will be no further updates on the incident.