Three dead in apparent murder-suicide in San Marcos

SAN MARCOS -- A man apparently shot and killed his estranged wife and her friend Tuesday as they collected his wife's belongings from their home in the Twin Oaks Valley Mobile Home Park, then fatally shot himself, authorities said Wednesday.

Annette Vaness, 39, and Barbara Heckmen, 42, died at the scene of the shootings Tuesday night at the mobile-home park at 500 Rancheros Drive. The 8:26 p.m. shootings occurred less than a mile from the San Marcos Sheriff's Station.

When deputies and paramedics arrived Tuesday night, they also found Heckmen's husband, 54-year-old Robert Heckmen, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, said sheriff's homicide Lt. Terry Wisniewski. Heckmen, who was alive but unconscious, was taken to Palomar Medical Center, where, police said, he died at 9:30 Wednesday morning.

Wisniewski said Robert Heckmen, who lived with his wife in a faded-red mobile home at the park, allegedly shot her and Vaness as they came to the home to gather Barbara Heckmen's belongings. The couple had apparently been separated for a week, he said.

"We are pretty confident that Bob is the person that shot the two women," Wisniewski said. "My guess out of this is that he was already at home, because the two women went to the home to retrieve some property."

Wisniewski said police believe a semiautomatic pistol was used to shoot them. There were no witnesses, but neighbors told investigators they heard gunshots, he said.

A 49-year-old neighbor, who said he was an acquaintance of the Heckmens, said Wednesday that he was saddened but not surprised by the shootings.

"It was just a matter of time," said the neighbor, who did not wish to be identified.

The neighbor said he had heard loud arguments going on in the couple's mobile home several times a month during the three years he had lived in the park.

"I would hear him yell and use four-letter words," the neighbor said. "She would make comments when we were at the Jacuzzi that she was tired of the verbal abuse."

Robert Heckmen sold parts at an off-road shop while his wife was a delivery person at a company that makes machine parts, the neighbor said.

The shooting deaths of Barbara Heckmen and Vaness were the second and third homicides of the year in San Marcos.

The first occurred when Benjamin Schmid, 25, of Vista was fatally stabbed during a dispute in June.

Meanwhile, San Marcos sheriff's Capt. Kim Quaco said Barbara Heckmen and Vaness could have used the sheriff's "Preserve the Peace" policy, which provides a deputy escort for people who need to gather their property in a potentially hostile environment.

"It's very hard to prevent crimes of passion," he said. "But deputies would have been available to accompany his wife to get her stuff."



