Husband, wife killed in apparent Seven Fields murder-suicide, police say

Two people are dead after an apparent murder-suicide in Seven Fields Borough, Butler County, on Tuesday morning, authorities said. 

Pennsylvania State Police identified the victims as 25-year-old Madeline Spatafore and 26-year-old Ryan Hosso. Northern Regional Police Department Chief Bryan DeWick said the murder-suicide appears to be domestic in nature and involved a husband and wife. 

Butler County dispatchers confirmed to KDKA that law enforcement was called to the area of Graywyck Drive in Seven Fields Borough around 1:15 a.m. on Tuesday. Trooper Bertha Cazy said Tuesday morning Hosso's parents had called police, saying their son had told them that he had killed his wife, and that he was in a wooded area threatening to kill himself.

When officers arrived, they found a woman inside the home who had been shot to death.   

"For a short time, the suspect was at large, but we quickly located him in a wooded area behind the house," Chief DeWick said, noting that the wooded area is in neighboring Cranberry Township. 

Spatafore was a physician assistant with UPMC who graduated from Duquesne University. She was in the Delta Zeta Sorority while at the university. 

"Maddie lit up a room," said Philip Clarke, the former director of student services at Duquesne who knew Spatafore. "Maddie was the type of person who was always happy, in a good mood."

Hosso, according to his LinkedIn profile, worked as a mechanical engineer for Vavco, a Pittsburgh-based engineering firm for the oil and gas industry. A person in management at the company told KDKA on Tuesday that Hosso had not worked there in about three years. 

Because Tuesday's murder-suicide spanned two jurisdictions, state police troopers from the Butler barracks were called in to take over the investigation.

"We're going to be here as long as it takes to process the scene," Trooper Cazy said. "That does take an extended amount of time, just with the different organizations that we have here."

Trooper Cazy said that the Pennsylvania State Police will be assisted by local police.