Søren Arn-Oelschlegel pictured in a remembrance.
Two men in Virginia were killed with the same gun in a murder-suicide that has shocked the local real estate community.
“I shot my realtor,” 84-year-old Albert Baglione told authorities before turning his weapon on himself, according to police.
Moments later, the killer himself was dead as well as beloved Portsmouth, Va.-based, Realtor Søren Arn-Oelschlegel, 41.
In a press release, the Portsmouth Police Department claims that officers responded to a call around at 6:00 p.m. on Oct. 8. When officers arrived, Baglione confessed to killing the real estate agent — apparently in clear view of law enforcement and with his pistol in his hand.
“After his statement, he closed his door and police heard a gunshot,” the PPD press release continues. “Police established a secure perimeter around the residence. SWAT then entered the building to find that he had taken his own life. Police located 41-year-old Soren Arn-Oelschlegel inside the residence with a fatal gunshot wound.”
The deaths came during a final home inspection after Baglione signed a contract to buy the property sight-unseen — and then didn’t like what he had agreed to purchase, according to local NBC affiliate WAVY.
“We feel sad for [Arn-Oelschlegel] and his entire family for what happened,” fellow realtor Wendy Carbaugh told the outlet. “Everything comes with risk. You are working with people you don’t know. You don’t know their families and their backgrounds.”
She went on to say that she usually follows clients into homes — rather than going inside first — just in case.
But it’s not apparent or clear that any amount of caution might have dissuaded the killer in this instance.
“He seemed a little off,” a man named Shane, who lives next door to the house in question and who asked to be identified only by his given name, told The Virginian-Pilot. “He just seemed out of it.”
Shane went on to tell the newspaper that he saw Baglione wandering around the cul-de-sac the day before the shooting. The neighbor saw the octogenarian again just hours before the two men were dead.
Another neighbor echoed that perspective.
“He just looked like maybe he had a mental breakdown or something,” a man named Jay told local CBS affiliate WTKR. “He didn’t look right at all. He kept driving up and down the street all day.”
“Our Long & Foster family is devastated by the tragic loss of our beloved colleague and friend, Soren Arn-Oelschlegel,” the real estate agent’s firm said in a Wednesday statement. “Soren grew up in the industry—his father, a general contractor and home inspector for most of his life, and his mother, a Realtor—and that lifelong experience instilled in Soren a passion for real estate and for helping people.”
According to the Pilot, Baglione’s son explained that his father previously lived in Alabama and bought the house after finding it in an online listing. The killer paid in cash and never once saw the property until the deal was done. That purchase occurred on Oct. 4 and Baglione paid $160,000, the outlet reports, citing online records.
“He said it didn’t look the same as it did in the pictures,” Shane added. “He told his son he was unhappy and that he was going to talk to his agent about it.”
And while the man who killed him was unhappy with the sale, the real estate agent was just the opposite.
“Congratulations to my out of town buyer,” Arn-Oelschlegel wrote on his personal Facebook page the day after the house was sold. “I’m so happy I was able to find him a home that fit his needs! Do you want to be a happy buyer too? Call me!”
[image via screengrab/WAVY]