Couple's death likely a murder-suicide

and Halley Bondy

A day after a Bayonne woman moved out of her boyfriend's house, the boyfriend apparently went to her parents' home in East Orange and shot and killed her before turning the gun on himself.

Police are investigating the apparent murder-suicide after Stephanie Delva, 30, and her boyfriend were found shot inside a single-family home in East Orange yesterday afternoon. Delva had been living with her boyfriend in Bayonne until Wednesday, according to the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, when she moved to East Orange to live with her parents.

At about 2:50 p.m. yesterday, East Orange police received a call from an unidentified woman calling for help. East Orange police Sgt. Andrew Di Elmo said it was not likely Delva who called.

Di Elmo said preliminary reports suggest the violence began as a domestic dispute, and that the man probably shot Delva, then shot himself.

The shooting happened in the living room of the home on the 600 block of Springdale Avenue. The man was pronounced dead at the scene, and the woman died as she was being taken to the hospital, said Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow.

The man's name was not released yesterday afternoon because his family had not been notified.

East Orange police and the prosecutor's office homicide squad are handling the investigation.

Alexi Friedman is a reporter with The Star-Ledger. He may be reached at afriedman@starledger.com. Halley Bondy is a reporter with the New Jersey Local News Service. She may be reached at (908) 243-6211 or hbondy@njlns.com.