California man fatally shoots wife and sister in suspected 'double mercy killing'

A California man calmly surrendered on Wednesday after police said that he shot and killed both his wife and sister in what were suspected to be mercy killings.

According to Los Angeles Police Department officials, officers arrived at Country Villa Sheraton Convalescent and Rehabilitation Hospital on Wednesday to investigate a shooting and discovered 60-year-old Lance Holger Anderson waiting for them on the patio.

"He gave up without any problems at all," LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon explained.

Anderson's sister, 58-year-old invalid Lisa Nave, was found shot to death in her bed.

Nave's family informed authorities that Anderson also had a wife who was suffering from dementia-related symptoms.

"The family called the sheriff in Santa Clarita to conduct a welfare check, and responding deputies did find a dead woman, presumed to be Lance’s wife," Vernon said. "The assumption there is that he killed her, then came here and killed his sister."

Vernon said investigators believed that the shootings were "mercy killings at least from his standpoint."

Although Nave had been revived from a coma four years ago, she still required constant care from the nursing home.

Vernon noted that illness "does not justify any killings."

Watch this KCAL video from Dec. 11, 2013.

[Man with a farewell letter and the gun of a suicide via Shutterstock]