Nothing seemed outwardly amiss Monday at the Columbia home where a mother and son were found dead by relatives Friday night in a tragedy that Howard County police suspect may have been the result of a suicide.
A pleasant man in a blue tank top who seemed to be cleaning answered the door at the house with white siding and gray shutters. He politely refused to discuss the events of Friday night, when relatives called police to a disturbing scene inside — the bodies of 46-year-old Tracy Denise Hawks and her 18-year-old autistic son, Christopher Melton, on a bed in the master bedroom.
Hawks was in the midst of a divorce sought by her husband, Leslie Hawks of Ellicott City, according to court records. But his attorney, David A. Titman of Ellicott City, said a property agreement was reached at a settlement conference May 24 and all seemed amicable, though the two had traded accusations of domestic violence in seeking protective orders in October. Both protective orders were denied for lack of evidence, according to records.
"We spent at least two hours and worked out an agreement," Titman said. "Hearing this news came as a shock to me. I had no indication," he said, that she was suicidal or even upset. "I couldn't see anything that happened in the divorce that would have caused this," he said.
Jasue Pierre, Tracy Hawks' lawyer, declined to comment.
Neighbors and school officials described Melton as a friendly, polite and handsome young man, and his mother as "a very good, loving mother," said neighbor Olivia Deijan, which only deepened the mystery of their deaths. "She was a very sweet lady," Deijan said. "The neighborhood is dealing with this because we're all wondering what we could have done."
Although her family sometimes took Melton with them to recreational or social events and she had contact with Hawks, Deijan said she never thought the woman was troubled.
Leslie Hawks declined to talk about the deaths when a reporter contacted him on Saturday and again on Monday.
School spokeswoman Patti Caplan said Melton enrolled in county schools in July 2005, and had been a student at Mount Hebron High School in Ellicott City before coming to Atholton High in Columbia in early December 2009.
"He was a welcome addition … a really pleasant young man," said Marcy Leonard, principal of Atholton High, where Christopher was a rising junior enrolled in the Academic Life Skills special education program for students who may not get a high school degree.
Scott Ruehl, principal at Mount Hebron, said he knew Melton for two years and liked him.
"He was a great, great kid. What a wonderful young man," Ruehl said. "He always had a smile, a very welcoming smile. He was always polite and friendly."
Police said they were called to the home in the 10400 block of Fair Oaks, not far from Atholton, after 9 p.m. Friday. Inside, they found the two bodies, along with a portable generator in the dining room turned "on" but out of gas. Carbon monoxide poisoning from the generator's exhaust is the suspected cause of death, pending an autopsy, police said. A preliminary investigation indicated that Hawks had recently talked of suicide, though no motive was disclosed, and no forced entry or signs of foul play could be found.
Police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said Monday that investigating officers found the home's electricity working.
Neighbor Bill Hepner, 47, said he hadn't known his new neighbors very well.
"She seemed like a very nice lady. She kept to herself," he said, though once he saw her sitting in her car for several hours. When he tapped on the window and asked if she was OK, she said she was, and then went into the house, he said.
Another neighbor who also has an autistic son said Melton was "a very sweet, sweet young man."
"Everyone loved him. He was a very handsome young man," he added, though the neighbor refused to identify himself.
"He was a very sociable young man," Leonard, the Atholton principal, said. "We will miss him."
A Howard County crisis team of counselors and mental health professionals came to the school Monday to help anyone in distress, she said.