Deputies performing a welfare check at a home in Jupiter found a man dead inside, according to a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office news release.
Ronald Oliver Schwartz, 65, was found shot to death Sunday at a home in the 9700 block of Mockingbird Trail.
Sun Sentinel news partners WPEC-Ch. 12 reported that a neighbor was concerned about Schwartz and asked deputies to check on him.
“Deputies believed the deceased death to be suspicious so detectives from the Violent Crimes Division were called to investigate further,” Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Teri Barbera said.
Schwartz was licensed to practice gynecology in Georgia, according to the Composite State Board of Medical Examiners records. No Florida medical license was found and it’s unclear if he was retired from practicing medicine.
Jeffrey Burton lives down the street from the home. He said he first saw Sheriff’s Office vehicles at about 8:30 a.m. Sunday while he was riding a bike along Mockingbird Trail.
He first saw about three Sheriff’s Office vehicles as deputies were putting up crime scene tape around a piece of property. As he rode back along the road Sunday afternoon, the number of law enforcement personnel had grown.
“I recognize in a quiet neighborhood such as this, when you have half a dozen police vehicles, half a dozen unmarked vehicles and a couple of CSI vans, something really bad has happened,” Burton said.
He said it was shocking to see the all the law enforcement activity in the otherwise peaceful neighborhood.
“I stopped and asked one of the [investigators] and they said they couldn’t tell me what was going on but clearly, it was something very serious,” Burton said.
Detectives determined the incident was a homicide.
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