Indio murder suspect kills self after police chase

An Indio man is suspected of killing his wife and then taking his own life while fleeing the Nevada Highway Patrol in a high-speed pursuit Monday night, Sgt. Dan Marshall with the Indio Police Department said Tuesday.

Lagoon Court remained quiet Tuesday, but neighbors said it was a different picture the night before.

“When I came home last night around 8:30 or so, I just saw a lot of police cars up and down the street. And someone told me there was some sort of domestic incident down the street,” said Richard Levy, who lives down the street.

Sgt. Dan Marshall with the Indio Police Department said they got a call from someone saying 52-year-old Vince Maltese killed his wife. When police got to the couple’s home they knew something wasn’t right and asked surrounding agencies to keep an eye out.

“The house was dark, they were checking the doors, they started calling people, no one was answering. The third party that was actually giving information was matching what he was seeing,” Marshall said.

When they forced entry to the home, they found 50-year-old Donna Maltese dead with a bullet casing lying next to her. While Indio police were investigating they got a call from the Nevada Highway Patrol saying they found Maltese.

A trooper tried to stop Maltese and a short pursuit followed. Minutes later they stopped the Dodge Charger to find Maltese had taken his life. Marshall said based on their investigation, Maltese killed his wife.

“As far as who the perpetrator is, that portion is closed. But there may be some things that are left opened and unanswered. Or we may never know why this happened,” Marshall said.

Vince Maltese posted some pictures of a gun on Facebook over a year ago.

Friends tell us the couple has been married since 2011. But no one seems to understand why this happened.

“Yeah, I’m very sad. I heard what happened and it’s very unfortunate that people’s emotions run that high and instances like that do occur,” Levy said.

Marshall said there’s no police record of domestic violence between the couple.

“Well we have gone out there in the past, since about 2009. There were no arrests ever made, there were no allegations of domestic violence,” Marshall said.

Marshall said they still need to finish the autopsy and determine the cause of death. Once they are finished with that they will look into why this might have happened.

Sgt. Marshall advises anyone who thinks their partner might have violent tendencies to seek help and not ignore it.