New Hampshire authorities are investigating a potential murder-suicide that took place on Sunday at a Mexican restaurant in Berlin, just north of Mount Washington.
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Officers responded at around 9:45 a.m. on Sunday to La Casita Mexican Restaurant at 4 Hillside Avenue in Berlin, NH, after 911 callers reported gunshots coming from inside the building, before the restaurant was set to open for the day at 11:00 a.m.
Berlin police officers entered the building to discover the 25-year-old Sandra Marisol Fuentes Huaracha, an employee of the restaurant, dead from gunshot wounds behind the bar.
Upon further investigation, officers discovered another deceased person, Michael Gleason, Jr., 50, dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in one of the restaurant’s bathrooms.
According to a press release from NH Attorney General John Formella, the deceased had been together in a prior domestic relationship, and authorities believe that the shootings were a likely murder-suicide.
Authorities do not believe that there is any ongoing threat to the public, and nothing on the restaurant’s social media accounts or website indicate how long, if at all, the investigation will cause the business to be closed.
Interestingly, a variety of social media accounts, and outlets, reported that Gleason was Fuentes Huaracha’s estranged husband, not merely her former domestic partner, and included pictures of what seems to be the two deceased, though The Maine Wire could not independently verify the images.
Notably, numerous accounts misidentified the 25-year-old victim as being 39 years old.
One Facebook user, Brook Bardeen, who appeared to be another employee of the restaurant and claims to have been Fuentes Huaracha’s best friend, issued a statement asking for prayers for her friend.
“I am in complete and utter shock, disgust, and grief. I don’t have it in me to write the heartfelt description of who she was as a person, coworker, and best friend…For the people that knew her, loved her, maybe even are just struck with curiosity… Please pray for the soul of Sandra Marisol Fuentes…,” said Bardeen.
