Hartford Police in Connecticut have identified a couple killed in a suspected murder-suicide after they were both found dead on July 24 in their shared apartment.
The man, identified as 35-year-old Irving Lollar and the woman, identified as 35-year-old Crystal Cooper, were in a romantic relationship, Hartford Police Lt. Aaron Boisvert confirmed in a statement.
Officers responded to a July 24 report of two dead gunshot victims in the apartment that Cooper’s family called in after they went there for a well-being check on Cooper, who hadn’t answered their calls or gone to work on Monday. Police confirmed that Cooper’s relatives found the bodies of Cooper and Lollar and that both were pronounced dead at the scene.
“No words will ever be able to describe the pain a mother/family feels after finding their loved one lifeless,” Cooper’s sister Breanna Diaz wrote on a GoFundMe page organized to cover the costs of Cooper’s funeral. “Her life was taken too soon in her own home; a place where she should’ve been safe and comfortable.”
Cooper was a caregiver at Horizon Dental, and Diaz wrote that she was “very hardworking.”
“Crystal was so full of life,” Diaz continued. “She made a memorable impression on everyone she met. She just moved out of our mother’s home less than a month ago and was so excited to start a new chapter of her life.”
Cooper is survived by her parents, seven sisters, three brothers and four nieces, who Diaz wrote are “all heartbroken by this senseless passing.”
The Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence told the Hartford Courant that Cooper’s murder “sadly marks the ninth intimate partner homicide in Connecticut this year and the third just this month.”
“Domestic violence is a public health crisis impacting us all and we all have a role to play in creating a world where no person lives in fear,” Meghan Scanlon, president and CEO of the coalition, said in a statement to the Courant on Tuesday.
Lt. Boisvert also spoke of the staggering number of domestic violence cases that have escalated to gun violence.
“Just like last year, a lot of the homicides we’re seeing are personal disputes. They’re disagreements that at one time may have been a fight or altercation, that now is going right to gunfire violence,” Boisvert said. “We saw it last year, we’re seeing it again this year, unfortunately.”
The Hartford Police Department’s Major Crimes and Crime Scene divisions have taken over the investigation. Anyone with any information is asked to call the Hartford Police Department Tip Line at 860-722-TIPS (8477).
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