An elderly woman, her sister and her niece were found shot to death inside an auto-glass business and a handgun similar to one owned by a relative was found nearby, police said.
Police asked a judge for permission to get a DNA sample from the relative, but state police Trooper Jeanne Martin wouldn't say whether he is in custody or if he is a suspect.
The bodies were found at about 6 p.m. Thursday in Ferguson Glass Services in a remote area of rolling hills and farmland near Saltsburg, about 35 miles east of Pittsburgh. The dead women were identified as Edith Cora Tietge, 81; her sister Doris Lynn Murphy, 69; and Murphy's daughter, Kris Lynn Murphy, 43.
Tietge lived across the road from the shop in Loyalhanna and the Murphys lived several miles away in Saltsburg.
The women appeared to have been shot in the head and a .22-caliber handgun that police believe is the murder weapon was found near the shop's rear door, investigators said in an affidavit accompanying their request to get Kevin Murphy's DNA sample.
An employee told police that Kevin Murphy — the shop's 48-year-old owner — had brought a .22-caliber handgun to the shop earlier this week, investigators said in the affidavit. Murphy told police he hid the gun in the shop, the affidavit said.
A woman who answered the phone Friday at a listing for Kevin and Doris Murphy in Saltsburg hung up without commenting.
No one appeared to be at the tan two-story home with a recently mowed lawn on Friday afternoon. Neighbors either did not want to talk or were not home.
One neighbor near the business said he did not know the people but to wave to them. Another neighbor did not want to talk to reporters. Several people waited near the crime scene, but none wanted to talk.
Police were called to the business Thursday by a family member who found the bodies in the shop's garage. It's not clear who the caller was.
On Friday, police searched a trash bin and several barns around the shop.
