HOUSTON – Houston police say two married men are dead after an apparent murder-suicide at their million-dollar home in the Greenway Plaza area.
Police were called to the 4000 block of Markham near Richmond and Weslayan around 9:30 p.m. Thursday.
Friends, neighbors, and the Medical Examiner's Office have identified the men as Rene and Benjamin Ruiz.
A friend of the two initially called police concerned about their wellbeing after the friend received a concerning text message. Police went into the home and found the men dead from gunshot wounds.
The shooting is being investigated as a murder-suicide, officers said.
We're told Benjamin was a well-known makeup artist with Laura Mercier Cosmetics. He and Rene were in the middle of a divorce and had recently put their house up for sale, neighbors said.
“I know they’d been together 22 years,” said longtime friend and neighbor Joaquin Medellin. “Ben and Rene would come here to the house all the time. As a matter of fact, my wife helped them get that home.”
The couple listed the home in March and recently moved out amid the separation. Online records show the home was listed for sale on Wednesday, just a day before the shootings.
Neighbors say Rene came to house after work the night of the murder-suicide, followed by Ben hours later.
“And that’s when the next-door neighbor heard one shot of two gun shots,” said Medellin. It is unclear who pulled the trigger.
But friends and neighbors who knew the successful couple, with so many great years behind them, hate to see that things have ended in this way.
