Jan 7, 2008 6:36 pm US/Central
Son Sought In Shooting Deaths Of Villa Park Couple
VILLA PARK, Ill. (CBS) ―
A suburban husband and wife were found murdered and Monday night police are looking for the couple's adult son.
The victims' bodies were discovered Monday morning outside a home on West Ridge Road in Villa Park.
As CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker reports, a SWAT team converged on the bungalow early Monday morning. They were responding to neighbor's who had called saying they'd heard shots coming from the house. As a precaution, around 6:45 a.m. school officials at nearby North Elementary were told to cancel classes and neighbors were warned to stay indoors.
"They told us to be careful, stay inside and if we had to, we could go in our basements," said neighbor Maria Diaz.
By 10:30 a.m., seeing no activity at the home, police went in and discovered the two bodies. Relatives have identified the victims as Syrja and Safo Shehu, a married couple in their 60s who are immigrants from Albania and have lived here for a couple of years.
"It is a tragedy. It is very sad," said family friend Rexhep Hoxha.
Hoxha knows the couple well. His nephew is married to their daughter. He's been told that the couple's son may have killed his parents. Police are now looking for Artur Shehu, a 33-year-old taxi driver.
Close friends say he was depressed because he was having problems paying the mortgage on the house, but Hoxha says he never saw any problems between Shehu and his parents.
"It's a surprise to me," Hoxha said. "He's a nice boy… I think it's just sickness or he was drunk…"
Artur Shehu was said to be driving a white taxi with black lettering with the name of Shehu Cab written on it, or a 2001 Volkswagen 4-door with Illinois registration number 945 3372, the release said.
In Chicago, Town Hall District officers recovered Artur Shehu's taxi Monday near the city's Lakefront, according to police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli. No further details were released.
Artur Shehu should be considered armed and dangerous, according to police, and if he is spotted, he should not be approached.
Relatives and friends of the suspect told the Sun-Times he was a cab driver who moved here from Albania several years ago and was recently battling depression.
Friends and relatives said Artur Shehu lived in the home with his parents. He has been in the United States for about 10 years, and his parents moved here six years ago from Albania, friends said.
A former girlfriend told the Sun-Times she believed Artur Shehu bought the home for his parents. Artur Shehu had been recently depressed and sought treatment, said Luan Sulo, a family friend, who said he believed Artur Shehu also had financial troubles.
CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.cbs2chicago.com's Most Popular Pages 
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