Details Surface in Daou Murder-Suicide

Santa Clara County sheriff's investigators released information Thursday showing that the the evening of July 27 was planning to carry out the violent act long before it occurred.

They said Imad Ed Daou, 50, had purchased a five shot .38-caliber Smith and Wesson revolver in March of 2010 "because of his son’s fight against cancer."

However, they revealed that an autopsy conducted on Andrew Daou, 22, showed he was cancer free, thus contradicting accounts that he may have ended the young man's life due to a believed recurrence with Hodgkins lymphoma.

"There is no reason to believe there are any outstanding suspects in the murder-suicide case," investigators said in a press release. "Further, we are still unclear as to why Imad committed this heinous act since the autopsy showed his son as being cancer free."

Investigators said the elder Daou had told others that if his son couldn’t beat Hodgkins lymphoma, which he had battled a few years earlier, he would end son Andrew Daou's life, "because he did not want him to suffer like some other family members had."   

Approximately two weeks prior to the tragic incident, Imad Ed Daou's wife had filed for divorce and had obtained a restraining order against him to protect herself and daughter Christina from the her husband. Sheriff's detectives confirmed they had been to the home many times on calls related to domestic disturbances.

Investigators said that on the night of July 26, the elder Daou called Christina Daou asking her to go to dinner with him, Andrew Daou and his girlfriend, but she had refused.

The next evening she drove to her father and brother's home, located in the 14000 block of Clara Street, to find out why neither had returned calls and found both of them dead, while accompanied by a neighbor. 

That evening, sheriff's detectives found both men dead from single gun shot wounds to their heads while they lay on their beds in their respective bedrooms. The handgun registered to Imad Ed Daou was with him in his bedroom, they said.