Police: Couple, son found dead after double murder-suicide at Sammamish home

Detectives are investigating an apparent double murder-suicide at a Sammamish home that police believe left a couple and their adult son dead.

Neighbors in the upscale Eastside neighborhood confirmed a Seattle dentist and his family were the victims.

“I went and talked to the police officer,” said Rick Willard, a resident in the Broadmoor Acres neighborhood where the shooting took place. “He told me what happened. And I was surprised.”

He said he learned about his neighbors’ deaths while watching the 11 p.m. news.

“They said northeast 30th,” he said. “And I thought, wait a minute. I live on northeast 30th. And I come outside, and sure enough there was a line of cop cars.”

King County sheriff’s deputies arrived at 24000 block of NE 30th Place just after 7 p.m. on Saturday after a call asking them to check on the family. The dentist was expected somewhere Saturday, but he never showed up. Deputies found him and two other people dead. A gun was nearby. They determined almost immediately it was likely a double murder-suicide.

“We don’t want the neighbors to be concerned that there’s some killer on the loose,” said Sgt. Cindi West, King County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman.

Neighbors confirmed what a KIRO 7 investigation had revealed: The people living here were Dr. Richard Nicolini, the 65-year-old owner of Sound Dentistry in downtown Seattle, his wife, Mary Ellen, also 65, and their son, Richie. Richard Nicolini is described as being in his early 20s.

Willard said that he did not know his neighbors, the Nicolini family, very well.

“It’s a small neighborhood. There are about 48 homes. And so we all know each other by name. They kind of kept to themselves,” they said.

“You know I saw the kid when he was going to school. But other than that they’d walk the neighborhood and say ‘hi,’ but didn’t go over and have dinner or anything with them, no.”

Willard and everyone else in the neighborhood said this has made them very sad.  Several people who appeared to be family members were going into the house on Sunday afternoon. They declined to talk on camera, and they left a short time later.

This would mark the third and fourth murders in the history of the city of Sammamish, which incorporated as a city in summer 1999. The area was previously unincorporated King County.

The first murder was in September 2014 and also was a domestic violence case.

In the second, Moises Radcliffe was run over and killed at Beaver Lake Park in Sammamish. Radcliffe, who is the son of a Seattle Police Officer, was at the park with his dog and his girlfriend. Radcliffe graduated from Issaquah High School.