Possible murder suicide in suburban NYC halts commuter line

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. - Police were investigating two deaths within relatively close proximity of one another in Long Island, N.Y. that may have been a murder-suicide and which caused the stoppage of a major commuter line Tuesday night.

Nassau County police said officers were first called to a home in Farmingdale, N.Y. where they found the body of a woman in her 60s and determined her death to be a homicide. About 25 minutes later, Metropolitan Transportation Authority police said a male in his 30s threw himself in front of a Long Island Rail Road train about a mile away.

"Both fatalities are being investigated to determine if they are connected in any way," said Officer Maureen Roach, a Nassau County police spokesperson told CBS News.

Police told CBS New York that both victims were from Farmingdale, but it was not clear whether their deaths were related or what exactly happened.

One witness, Jack Imperial of Queens, N.Y., told Newsday that he entered a cab at the Farmindale LIRR station and both he and the driver saw a decapitated head in the roadway. Homicide detectives around the area surrounded the building while multiple white sheets covered the woman's body, CBS New York reported.

The deaths caused about a half dozen trains to be delayed or cancelled, the MTA said. An evacuation of people on the train that struck the male victim was completed late Tuesday evening and buses had to be ordered in to route passengers around the investigation.