GONZALES, La. (KNOE 8 News) - Ascension Parish Sheriff Jeff Wiley says a $500,000 coin collection is the likely reason home invaders killed a 74-year-old man and his 50-year-old stepson, leaving the older man's wife critically injured.
He tells The Advocate that deputies were sent to the house late Saturday because relatives had been unable to reach the family by phone. Wiley says nobody answered the door, so deputies broke in.
They found 72-year-old Shirley Marchand alive, and the bodies of Robert Irwin Marchand and 50-year-old Douglas Dooley - the son of Shirley Marchand. Wiley says their throats all had been cut. He says they also had other cuts and appeared to have been bludgeoned.
Shirley Marchand was in a hospital Sunday. Wiley says the safe that held the coin collection is missing.
