Home quiet before death of couple

STAUNTON — A Staunton man shot his wife then himself Tuesday night in an apparent murder-suicide in a home not known for trouble.

A friend called police to check on Daniel Lee Knight, 24, and Amber Nichole Knight, 23. Authorities discovered the couple dead at 8:48 p.m. in their home on the 600 block of Grubert Avenue, Staunton police Officer Lisa Klein said.

“The last time somebody spoke with them was just after midnight [early Tuesday],” Klein said.

That conversation, between a relative and the victims, raised no concerns, Klein said.

Police said interviews with neighbors have turned up little information and no reports of gunshots or a disturbance. Single shots from a high-powered rifle killed each victim in the living room, police said. The couple’s one-story gray house sits on a well-traveled stretch of residential road within a mile of Shelburne Middle School.

Authorities had never responded to the home and neither victim had obtained a restraining order.

City records state the couple married in July 2007. Klein said the couple had no children. Authorities said they found no initial indication that alcohol or drugs were a factor in the deaths.

Autopsies were performed Wednesday in Roanoke. Information on those examinations was not available.

The last murder-suicide in Staunton occurred on Benson Street in 2003, police said.