Dr. Eric Cordes was described by his employer as a "highly respected, board-certified radiologist and beloved physician."
On Sunday, November 30, Cordes, 63, and his wife, Vicki Schiller, 66, were discovered "shot multiple times in their open garage" shortly after noon, Simi Valley police told ABC News.
The suspect? Their 37-year-old son, Keith Cordes, whom police believe shot his parents before driving to Chino, CA, where he reportedly set his own car on fire and shot himself to death, according to the Ventura County Star. Keith was living in Kentucky. According to KTVU-TV, Schiller was Keith's stepmother.
A neighbor told The New York Post that Keith allegedly "sat in wait to ambush and gunned down the beloved couple in their own garage."
“He did like a drive-by, like a dry run at 11:25 and then went and staked out at that cul-de-sac,” Mike Hylton told The Post. “Then at 12:01, he must have waited for the garage door to open and that was it."
The neighbor told The Post that Eric "was shot in the neck and head and was 'hanging out of his Maserati door jamb,'" whereas Schiller "was behind him on the floor with 'holes all over her.'"
Although police haven't delineated a motive, the neighbor claimed to The Post: “There was a dispute over money and basically there was a threat and he followed through with it."
Dr. Cordes was a graduate of the Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, NE, according to his medical bio on the Focus Medical Imaging website. He also had a fellowship at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, in San Diego, CA.
"The Adventist Health Simi Valley community is heartbroken by the tragic deaths of our longtime colleague, Dr. Eric Cordes, and his wife, Vicki. Dr. Cordes was a highly respected, board-certified radiologist and beloved physician who served this community with compassion and excellence for nearly 30 years," the hospital told ABC News.