PLEASANT VALLEY — A mild-mannered Dutchess County pharmacist massacred his wife and two young sons with a 20-gauge shotgun before shooting himself in a horrific murder-suicide, cops said Friday.
Pakistani immigrant Abbas Lodhi, 49, killed his sons, Zain Lodhi, 9, and Mugthba Lodhi, 13, along with their mother, 43-year-old Sarwat Lodhi, in a rampage that left bloodied bodies in three locations, cops said.
The cricket-loving dad and his youngest son were discovered along with the shotgun about 8:30 a.m. Thursday in his white Honda Accord parked at the Milestone Square shopping plaza in Pleasant Valley after a passerby made the grisly find and called 911, State Police said.
Police later Thursday found Mugthba dead in the family’s home in a luxury gated community in Pleasant Valley, a discovery that sparked an intense manhunt for the dead man’s wife.
Her body was finally found about 3 p.m. Friday lying by the side of Route 376 in Wappingers Falls, about 10 miles south of their home.
Cops said she had been shot with the same gun at that location, not far from Dutchess County Airport, and then dumped there.
State Police Maj. Robin Benziger said cops were still looking for what sparked the massacre.
“The motive, at this time, is not clear,” said Benziger, calling the bloodbath “a family tragedy.”
Lodhi, a licensed pharmacist since 1993, had opened the Hyde Park Pharmacy in nearby Hyde Park in January 2010 after working for other pharmacies for years.
The killer sold his business just three weeks ago, but did not appear to have any financial problems and had even bragged about making good money on the deal, one nearby businessman said.
“He said he was in good shape financially,” Melvin Lansing, owner of L&L Assembly in the same Hyde Park shopping center, told The Poughkeepsie Journal. “He made a profit on his house. He made money selling his business. He seemed happy.”