The son and estranged wife of Santa Ynez resident Steve Pappas were found dead Oct. 31, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.
According to Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover, sheriff’s deputies and the California Highway Patrol responded to a report of a solo traffic collision in the 1500 block of Refugio Road at approximately 2:10 p.m. and found 21-year-old Maxwell Pappas dead inside with a gunshot wound to the head.
Police then went to the Pappas home nearby in the 2000 block of Refugio Road where they discovered the body of Maxwell’s mother, 57-year-old Lori Wolf-Pappas, also with a gunshot wound to the head.
According to Hoover, police believe Maxwell shot his mother inside the home and fled in an SUV before shooting himself in the head while driving, causing the vehicle to veer off the road and crash into a tree.
Hoover said in a press release that the deaths are being investigated as a murder-suicide.
The Sheriff’s Office is not releasing any further details regarding the deaths other than to say they are related and there don’t appear to be any other suspects or a risk to public safety.
Detectives are in the process of obtaining a search warrant for the home to determine if Lori’s death is suspicious, Hoover said.
A gun was found inside the vehicle Maxwell was driving, although Hoover told the Sun that neither he, nor his mother, had any guns registered in their names.
“Sheriff’s detectives are in the process of trying to determine where he got the gun,” Hoover told the Sun.
Arrest records from the Sheriff’s Office indicate that Maxwell was arrested on Sept. 2 on suspicion of assault.
Maxwell was charged, according to Santa Barbara County Chief Deputy District Attorney Paul Greco, although he could not give details of the incident.
Maxwell and Lori are the son and wife of Steve Pappas, who fought a years-long legal battle contesting a loss in an election for 3rd District Supervisor in 2008.
Last year, Pappas ran as an independent write-in candidate for California’s 24th Congressional District.
This is the second suspect murder-suicide in the Santa Ynez Valley in less than a month. On Oct. 8, sheriff’s deputies found the bodies of Gregg Hamilton, 50, and Kimberly Hamilton, 45, inside a Los Olivos home located in the 2200 block of Alamo Pintado Avenue. That case is also being investigated as a murder-suicide, according to Hoover.
This article appears in Nov 5-12, 2015.
