Nov. 12, 2026
Ex-Wife’s Chilling Warning In Double Murder Suicide: ‘He’s unstable. You are going to need more officers.'
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RSS Feed Ohio police say the 71-year-old ex-son-in-law of a 71-year-old couple shot both of his former in-laws in the head before turning the gun on himself. What’s even more bizarre, Stefan Pascu had been divorced from the couple’s daughter for more than a decade. Police have not released a motive, but the day of the double murder-suicide was the birthday of Pascu’s ex-wife who warned police before entering the home that Pascu was unstable. Pascu had no known criminal history and that there were no protection orders in place at the time of the killings.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Thursday, November 12th. And today, authorities in Ohio have a double murder-suicide on their hands. And all three that are dead are 71 years old. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. Murder and suicide is one thing. Double murder-suicide is another. Elderly double murder-suicide? This certainly got my attention.
00:00:29
Speaker 2: Yes, these types of stories, unfortunately, continue to get our attention because we are seeing elderly murder or homicide victims and homicidal maniacs, basically, being over the age of 70.
00:00:46
Speaker 3: I just feel like.
00:00:47
Speaker 2: This has been a story, unfortunately, that we've been telling now for several months.
00:00:52
Speaker 1: And once again, this is a story, Robes, of, I guess, a former family member in this situation, taking out family members. This one is, it seems to be, Robes, a history and just years and years of conflict that they couldn't let go. And there was a last straw of some kind and somebody snapped. Yeah.
00:01:17
Speaker 2: I mean, look, this is one of those stories that is puzzling because maybe it wouldn't seem unusual that an ex-husband would be upset at his former in-laws. But if you consider that the ex-husband became an ex-son-in-law 10 years ago, that's where this really gets confusing.
00:01:41
Speaker 3: That to think this man.
00:01:44
Speaker 2: held on to this anger and this hate and this resentment for more than a decade that he couldn't move on from a whatever failed marriage and whatever sort of strained relationship that may have ensued with her family following that, that he was still so upset that he was willing to murder her parents and then kill himself. He didn't even go after his ex-wife. It's almost as if he knew killing her parents would cause the most damage, that she would have to live with that pain, and that would be more harmful or more painful to her than actually dying herself. That's what it really gets to. You have to think that that's what was in his head.
00:02:29
Speaker 1: I mean, that's some suggestion we'll get into in a second. Local reporting roves that there was, over the past 10 years, reasons for him to be pissed. Yes. That it didn't end with divorce. There was still some back and forth. I haven't seen anywhere that these two, yes, he is up in age. They didn't have kids, right? These two didn't have kids together. So that's often a conflict. So it's the money and the kids. That's what people are fighting about at the end of a divorce. It wasn't that type of conflict. So let's take you North Royalton, Ohio. This is about 20 miles south of Cleveland. I believe it's considered a suburb of Cleveland there. But this was on Tuesday night, Rose, 8 o'clock. They get a 911 call around 8 o'clock at night, and the woman is telling them, Robes, she's not actually there and the one in danger, but she says there's an unwanted guest at her parents' house.
00:03:22
Speaker 3: That's right.
00:03:22
Speaker 2: So she had been trying to call her parents. They were not answering. Again, they're 71 years old. So she was concerned she couldn't reach her parents, and then she sees her ex-husband's car parked in the driveway of her parents' home.
00:03:37
Speaker 3: That's when she got worried.
00:03:39
Speaker 1: Rose, that's pretty telling to me. She just sees the car and calls 911.
00:03:45
Speaker 3: She didn't go inside.
00:03:46
Speaker 1: Didn't at all.
00:03:47
Speaker 2: So that shows that she was concerned about what his propensity for violence was. And she obviously felt like her life would be in danger if she entered that home. And she was obviously concerned that her parents' lives were in danger.
00:04:01
Speaker 1: I think that's the most telling part of this story, that reaction. You see the car and you call night. We need police here. All I see is the car. Didn't talk to him. Didn't talk to the parents. The car is here. Get the cops.
00:04:12
Speaker 2: Yes. In fact, the officers on the scene reported that this is exactly a verbatim quote from the ex-wife referring to her ex-husband. He's unstable. You're going to need more officers. That is chilling.
00:04:29
Speaker 1: Okay, so this is where, Robes, in these stories, what did we miss? I say we, just collectively, as, Robes, you see immediately, you know? Robes, at that point, when that comment was made, she didn't know what was going on in the house. Nobody did. And she already just said, you're going to need more cops. Like, he was that much of a menacing character that she immediately thought danger. Robes, this sounds like somebody who should have been... reported prior to this. Correct.
00:04:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I'm imagining, look, we're both divorced. I wouldn't, I would run into the house. I would assume like, or I'd be cautiously like, hey, what's.
00:05:07
Speaker 3: Going on here?
00:05:08
Speaker 2: I wouldn't call 911. That means you know somebody is violent.
00:05:14
Speaker 1: That's funny.
00:05:14
Speaker 3: You know somebody is violent.
00:05:16
Speaker 2: You know somebody is capable of doing harm. And yes, it's unfortunate that nothing was set up in the first place, a restraining order or some sort of a, just a warning to say, hey, we take your threat seriously.
00:05:32
Speaker 1: Her reaction here is a, it was just a matter of time reaction. Yes. Like we knew something. Like how long have they known and been fearful of this guy even? So police do get their robes. They eventually go into the house. They try to call and try to get somebody to answer. But they get into the house in robes. They find... these two dead, but in the couple in separate parts of the house though.
00:05:56
Speaker 2: Yes. So dad, um, is in the hallway, the upstairs hallway. And then the mom, is in the dining room. They both had a bullet hole to the head, correct?
00:06:11
Speaker 1: That's intent.
00:06:12
Speaker 3: That's like execution style.
00:06:14
Speaker 2: So it's 71-year-old Amelia Chortan and 71-year-old Soren Chortan. So those were her family. Those were her parents. And once they found both of those folks dead, the police retreated because they know they have a vehicle.
00:06:33
Speaker 3: That belongs to an ex-husband.
00:06:35
Speaker 2: You've got the ex-wife saying he's upset.
00:06:39
Speaker 3: This is a dangerous situation.
00:06:41
Speaker 2: So they retreat and they call for backup.
00:06:53
Speaker 1: This was a big response. And you see the house?
00:06:56
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:06:57
Speaker 1: They messed that house up on the outside. SWAT breached that house.
00:07:02
Speaker 2: Literally there are boards, like all the windows are boarded up because this sounds like, and according to local reporting, we were reading it, this sounds like something out of a movie. Like they all had to come in like crashing through the windows and did serious damage because they didn't know if they had a man with a gun who was willing to take anyone else out. They did not know the situation they were walking into. So they came in with force and armed. And then that is when they found the ex-husband with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
00:07:33
Speaker 3: They say the gun was right by his side.
00:07:36
Speaker 1: And so this is where they put out the statement, right? No harm or no threat to the public, meaning we think this is all contained. They believe they know who did the killing in that house, and he is dead. Ropes, his name, Stefan Pasku, is his name, the ex-husband. And according to the ex-wife, Ropes, we got these details later, and some stuff came out from her 911 call. It sounds like this had been building maybe as of late, but she was still aware. I can't imagine Robes 10 years after divorcing somebody to still be saying, he's just so mad.
00:08:10
Speaker 2: Right.
00:08:11
Speaker 1: And just so angry still.
00:08:13
Speaker 2: That is exactly what she said. She said, he's just been so mad. He can't let go for more than 10 years.
00:08:20
Speaker 3: We've been divorced.
00:08:21
Speaker 2: She's telling the police that.
00:08:23
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:08:23
Speaker 2: I mean, that's kind of wild, but she also said that he'd been acting strange lately. I believe he went out of the country for a while. And she claims ever since he came back, he's been acting oddly, strangely.
00:08:34
Speaker 3: That's how she described it.
00:08:36
Speaker 1: What that means exactly, we don't know. But that's what she did. Look, she was having almost a therapy session with a 911 operator. 911 operator, well, how do you say this? Why do you think this? So we got a lot of information, actually, from that 911 call that explained, yes, this is the guy she is immediately fearful of. A guy just seeing the car, she knew there was a threat to her parents. And this... is what happens this is the result babe this is what that's an awful way to end for lives to end these are three 71 year old people 71 ended a double murder suicide i i don't know this one i think believe um where'd he had he'd gone somewhere in europe um Well, I think the family, the parents who are from are Eastern European.
00:09:24
Speaker 2: Eastern European, Romania. So, yes, she said that he just had come back from Romania. He'd been there for about a month or so. He's been acting very strangely. So that's what she said. Now, there is a little backstory. I thought this was interesting and possibly played a role that that house that he went into where he killed the parents of his ex-wife, that was his house.
00:09:50
Speaker 3: That he bought.
00:09:51
Speaker 2: 20 years before. The house he bought right before he married their daughter. And in the divorce, she got the house.
00:09:59
Speaker 3: So who knows?
00:10:00
Speaker 2: If that was also just a long standing resentment that he just felt like that was my house that I bought. And now these people are living in it. I don't know, but that had to have played some sort of role. This was a house he knew very well.
00:10:16
Speaker 1: Um, yeah, they said he used to live there. What gets him to a point to get set off like this, we don't know. The house situation is one thing, but there's something else they're pointing to that was going on on Tuesday that might have set him off. Stay here.
00:10:40
Speaker 3: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. We are talking about.
00:10:44
Speaker 2: A bizarre and a tragic double murder-suicide just outside of.
00:10:50
Speaker 3: Cleveland, Ohio.
00:10:51
Speaker 2: Three 71-year-olds are dead, and police say it was the ex-son-in-law of a couple who committed the murders and then turned the gun on himself. This all took place on Tuesday, November 10th at some point in the evening, and Tuesday, November 10th was a very specific day.
00:11:17
Speaker 1: Well, how could this possibly have been the thing? It was her birthday. It was the daughter or the ex-wife's birthday. I mean, that's a hell of a coincidence. How does that play into.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: You have to think about, look, my mind went somewhere. Obviously, this is a dark story, so it's not unusual that my mind would go there. But the idea would be that Pascue was giving her the ultimate FU birthday gift. He knew that, obviously, how devastating would that be to know that the man you once married, the man that you introduced to your parents, murdered him. your 71-year-old parents on your birthday. Your birthday now will always be linked to and marred by the murders of your parents from a man that you slept in a bed with every night.
00:12:12
Speaker 3: That is horrific.
00:12:14
Speaker 2: And I think that was what he was intending to do as he wanted to inflict as much pain as he possibly could And I believe he came up with this plan to do it on her birthday and to not kill her, to have her live with the knowledge of what happened on her birthday.
00:12:32
Speaker 1: That's where your head went?
00:12:33
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:12:34
Speaker 1: No, I'm not taking, that's not where my head immediately goes.
00:12:37
Speaker 3: Where did yours go?
00:12:40
Speaker 1: Yes, it was connected to, in some way, something bubbled up in him, something that was emotional. It didn't cross my mind, and it's just a tough thing to, to think someone is that calculating and sick to leave you with that, like, I actually want to ruin the rest of your life.
00:13:00
Speaker 2: Think about though, when you've got divorcing folks and look, obviously mental illness has to take or play a role in this because people who are angry and who get divorced and who lose property or money or livelihood, or yes, even custody of their children are The vast significant majority of people who deal with that kind of pain and trauma and resentment don't murder people because of it. But you do see in rare situations parents killing their own children just to get back at their ex.
00:13:33
Speaker 3: We have seen that happen. That is how sick and twisted.
00:13:36
Speaker 2: People can become over resentment and jealousy and wanting to inflict pain.
00:13:42
Speaker 3: And people know that... It's far worse.
00:13:46
Speaker 2: I would imagine, to lose a child or to lose your parents through a violent act committed by somebody that you once loved. That is a horror I cannot imagine.
00:13:55
Speaker 1: They're still piecing this one together in North Royalton, Ohio. But another case, I guess this is an ex-husband, but again, to see family members, ex-family members, this type of thing where families are wiped out.
00:14:10
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:14:11
Speaker 1: These are very difficult to continue to see, but this investigation is ongoing. We want to put this one on your radar as well. Folks, we appreciate you as always. For my dear Amy Robach, I'm TJ Holmes. We'll talk soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Thursday, November 12th. And today, authorities in Ohio have a double murder-suicide on their hands. And all three that are dead are 71 years old. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. Murder and suicide is one thing. Double murder-suicide is another. Elderly double murder-suicide? This certainly got my attention.
00:00:29
Speaker 2: Yes, these types of stories, unfortunately, continue to get our attention because we are seeing elderly murder or homicide victims and homicidal maniacs, basically, being over the age of 70.
00:00:46
Speaker 3: I just feel like.
00:00:47
Speaker 2: This has been a story, unfortunately, that we've been telling now for several months.
00:00:52
Speaker 1: And once again, this is a story, Robes, of, I guess, a former family member in this situation, taking out family members. This one is, it seems to be, Robes, a history and just years and years of conflict that they couldn't let go. And there was a last straw of some kind and somebody snapped. Yeah.
00:01:17
Speaker 2: I mean, look, this is one of those stories that is puzzling because maybe it wouldn't seem unusual that an ex-husband would be upset at his former in-laws. But if you consider that the ex-husband became an ex-son-in-law 10 years ago, that's where this really gets confusing.
00:01:41
Speaker 3: That to think this man.
00:01:44
Speaker 2: held on to this anger and this hate and this resentment for more than a decade that he couldn't move on from a whatever failed marriage and whatever sort of strained relationship that may have ensued with her family following that, that he was still so upset that he was willing to murder her parents and then kill himself. He didn't even go after his ex-wife. It's almost as if he knew killing her parents would cause the most damage, that she would have to live with that pain, and that would be more harmful or more painful to her than actually dying herself. That's what it really gets to. You have to think that that's what was in his head.
00:02:29
Speaker 1: I mean, that's some suggestion we'll get into in a second. Local reporting roves that there was, over the past 10 years, reasons for him to be pissed. Yes. That it didn't end with divorce. There was still some back and forth. I haven't seen anywhere that these two, yes, he is up in age. They didn't have kids, right? These two didn't have kids together. So that's often a conflict. So it's the money and the kids. That's what people are fighting about at the end of a divorce. It wasn't that type of conflict. So let's take you North Royalton, Ohio. This is about 20 miles south of Cleveland. I believe it's considered a suburb of Cleveland there. But this was on Tuesday night, Rose, 8 o'clock. They get a 911 call around 8 o'clock at night, and the woman is telling them, Robes, she's not actually there and the one in danger, but she says there's an unwanted guest at her parents' house.
00:03:22
Speaker 3: That's right.
00:03:22
Speaker 2: So she had been trying to call her parents. They were not answering. Again, they're 71 years old. So she was concerned she couldn't reach her parents, and then she sees her ex-husband's car parked in the driveway of her parents' home.
00:03:37
Speaker 3: That's when she got worried.
00:03:39
Speaker 1: Rose, that's pretty telling to me. She just sees the car and calls 911.
00:03:45
Speaker 3: She didn't go inside.
00:03:46
Speaker 1: Didn't at all.
00:03:47
Speaker 2: So that shows that she was concerned about what his propensity for violence was. And she obviously felt like her life would be in danger if she entered that home. And she was obviously concerned that her parents' lives were in danger.
00:04:01
Speaker 1: I think that's the most telling part of this story, that reaction. You see the car and you call night. We need police here. All I see is the car. Didn't talk to him. Didn't talk to the parents. The car is here. Get the cops.
00:04:12
Speaker 2: Yes. In fact, the officers on the scene reported that this is exactly a verbatim quote from the ex-wife referring to her ex-husband. He's unstable. You're going to need more officers. That is chilling.
00:04:29
Speaker 1: Okay, so this is where, Robes, in these stories, what did we miss? I say we, just collectively, as, Robes, you see immediately, you know? Robes, at that point, when that comment was made, she didn't know what was going on in the house. Nobody did. And she already just said, you're going to need more cops. Like, he was that much of a menacing character that she immediately thought danger. Robes, this sounds like somebody who should have been... reported prior to this. Correct.
00:04:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I'm imagining, look, we're both divorced. I wouldn't, I would run into the house. I would assume like, or I'd be cautiously like, hey, what's.
00:05:07
Speaker 3: Going on here?
00:05:08
Speaker 2: I wouldn't call 911. That means you know somebody is violent.
00:05:14
Speaker 1: That's funny.
00:05:14
Speaker 3: You know somebody is violent.
00:05:16
Speaker 2: You know somebody is capable of doing harm. And yes, it's unfortunate that nothing was set up in the first place, a restraining order or some sort of a, just a warning to say, hey, we take your threat seriously.
00:05:32
Speaker 1: Her reaction here is a, it was just a matter of time reaction. Yes. Like we knew something. Like how long have they known and been fearful of this guy even? So police do get their robes. They eventually go into the house. They try to call and try to get somebody to answer. But they get into the house in robes. They find... these two dead, but in the couple in separate parts of the house though.
00:05:56
Speaker 2: Yes. So dad, um, is in the hallway, the upstairs hallway. And then the mom, is in the dining room. They both had a bullet hole to the head, correct?
00:06:11
Speaker 1: That's intent.
00:06:12
Speaker 3: That's like execution style.
00:06:14
Speaker 2: So it's 71-year-old Amelia Chortan and 71-year-old Soren Chortan. So those were her family. Those were her parents. And once they found both of those folks dead, the police retreated because they know they have a vehicle.
00:06:33
Speaker 3: That belongs to an ex-husband.
00:06:35
Speaker 2: You've got the ex-wife saying he's upset.
00:06:39
Speaker 3: This is a dangerous situation.
00:06:41
Speaker 2: So they retreat and they call for backup.
00:06:53
Speaker 1: This was a big response. And you see the house?
00:06:56
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:06:57
Speaker 1: They messed that house up on the outside. SWAT breached that house.
00:07:02
Speaker 2: Literally there are boards, like all the windows are boarded up because this sounds like, and according to local reporting, we were reading it, this sounds like something out of a movie. Like they all had to come in like crashing through the windows and did serious damage because they didn't know if they had a man with a gun who was willing to take anyone else out. They did not know the situation they were walking into. So they came in with force and armed. And then that is when they found the ex-husband with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
00:07:33
Speaker 3: They say the gun was right by his side.
00:07:36
Speaker 1: And so this is where they put out the statement, right? No harm or no threat to the public, meaning we think this is all contained. They believe they know who did the killing in that house, and he is dead. Ropes, his name, Stefan Pasku, is his name, the ex-husband. And according to the ex-wife, Ropes, we got these details later, and some stuff came out from her 911 call. It sounds like this had been building maybe as of late, but she was still aware. I can't imagine Robes 10 years after divorcing somebody to still be saying, he's just so mad.
00:08:10
Speaker 2: Right.
00:08:11
Speaker 1: And just so angry still.
00:08:13
Speaker 2: That is exactly what she said. She said, he's just been so mad. He can't let go for more than 10 years.
00:08:20
Speaker 3: We've been divorced.
00:08:21
Speaker 2: She's telling the police that.
00:08:23
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:08:23
Speaker 2: I mean, that's kind of wild, but she also said that he'd been acting strange lately. I believe he went out of the country for a while. And she claims ever since he came back, he's been acting oddly, strangely.
00:08:34
Speaker 3: That's how she described it.
00:08:36
Speaker 1: What that means exactly, we don't know. But that's what she did. Look, she was having almost a therapy session with a 911 operator. 911 operator, well, how do you say this? Why do you think this? So we got a lot of information, actually, from that 911 call that explained, yes, this is the guy she is immediately fearful of. A guy just seeing the car, she knew there was a threat to her parents. And this... is what happens this is the result babe this is what that's an awful way to end for lives to end these are three 71 year old people 71 ended a double murder suicide i i don't know this one i think believe um where'd he had he'd gone somewhere in europe um Well, I think the family, the parents who are from are Eastern European.
00:09:24
Speaker 2: Eastern European, Romania. So, yes, she said that he just had come back from Romania. He'd been there for about a month or so. He's been acting very strangely. So that's what she said. Now, there is a little backstory. I thought this was interesting and possibly played a role that that house that he went into where he killed the parents of his ex-wife, that was his house.
00:09:50
Speaker 3: That he bought.
00:09:51
Speaker 2: 20 years before. The house he bought right before he married their daughter. And in the divorce, she got the house.
00:09:59
Speaker 3: So who knows?
00:10:00
Speaker 2: If that was also just a long standing resentment that he just felt like that was my house that I bought. And now these people are living in it. I don't know, but that had to have played some sort of role. This was a house he knew very well.
00:10:16
Speaker 1: Um, yeah, they said he used to live there. What gets him to a point to get set off like this, we don't know. The house situation is one thing, but there's something else they're pointing to that was going on on Tuesday that might have set him off. Stay here.
00:10:40
Speaker 3: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. We are talking about.
00:10:44
Speaker 2: A bizarre and a tragic double murder-suicide just outside of.
00:10:50
Speaker 3: Cleveland, Ohio.
00:10:51
Speaker 2: Three 71-year-olds are dead, and police say it was the ex-son-in-law of a couple who committed the murders and then turned the gun on himself. This all took place on Tuesday, November 10th at some point in the evening, and Tuesday, November 10th was a very specific day.
00:11:17
Speaker 1: Well, how could this possibly have been the thing? It was her birthday. It was the daughter or the ex-wife's birthday. I mean, that's a hell of a coincidence. How does that play into.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: You have to think about, look, my mind went somewhere. Obviously, this is a dark story, so it's not unusual that my mind would go there. But the idea would be that Pascue was giving her the ultimate FU birthday gift. He knew that, obviously, how devastating would that be to know that the man you once married, the man that you introduced to your parents, murdered him. your 71-year-old parents on your birthday. Your birthday now will always be linked to and marred by the murders of your parents from a man that you slept in a bed with every night.
00:12:12
Speaker 3: That is horrific.
00:12:14
Speaker 2: And I think that was what he was intending to do as he wanted to inflict as much pain as he possibly could And I believe he came up with this plan to do it on her birthday and to not kill her, to have her live with the knowledge of what happened on her birthday.
00:12:32
Speaker 1: That's where your head went?
00:12:33
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:12:34
Speaker 1: No, I'm not taking, that's not where my head immediately goes.
00:12:37
Speaker 3: Where did yours go?
00:12:40
Speaker 1: Yes, it was connected to, in some way, something bubbled up in him, something that was emotional. It didn't cross my mind, and it's just a tough thing to, to think someone is that calculating and sick to leave you with that, like, I actually want to ruin the rest of your life.
00:13:00
Speaker 2: Think about though, when you've got divorcing folks and look, obviously mental illness has to take or play a role in this because people who are angry and who get divorced and who lose property or money or livelihood, or yes, even custody of their children are The vast significant majority of people who deal with that kind of pain and trauma and resentment don't murder people because of it. But you do see in rare situations parents killing their own children just to get back at their ex.
00:13:33
Speaker 3: We have seen that happen. That is how sick and twisted.
00:13:36
Speaker 2: People can become over resentment and jealousy and wanting to inflict pain.
00:13:42
Speaker 3: And people know that... It's far worse.
00:13:46
Speaker 2: I would imagine, to lose a child or to lose your parents through a violent act committed by somebody that you once loved. That is a horror I cannot imagine.
00:13:55
Speaker 1: They're still piecing this one together in North Royalton, Ohio. But another case, I guess this is an ex-husband, but again, to see family members, ex-family members, this type of thing where families are wiped out.
00:14:10
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:14:11
Speaker 1: These are very difficult to continue to see, but this investigation is ongoing. We want to put this one on your radar as well. Folks, we appreciate you as always. For my dear Amy Robach, I'm TJ Holmes. We'll talk soon.