'Love' Led to Murder-Suicide, Says a Friend

The father of  Vera Michaelson, the woman shot and killed by her husband in a murder-suicide in Sherman Oaks this past week said,  "I don't speak English."

Then, standing 10 feet from the spot where his daughter was shot, he began to weep.

The gate at the Sherville Place residence where the violence occurred on Wednesday was open Sunday afternoon. Family and friends were busy at the location where the 39-year- old physician, Dr. Alexander Michaelson, shot his 33-year-old-wife, Vera Michaelson, and then turned the gun on himself.

"You can still see the blood over there in the driveway," said a man who said he was a friend of Dr. Michaelson but declined to give his name.

He pointed to a long, dark spot in the driveway.

When asked why does he think his friend would shoot his wife and then himself, the man gave a one-word answer:

"Love."

Were they splitting up, he was asked?

"I don't know," he said, and turned away.

Then he stopped and pointed at three vehicles in the garage, two passenger cars and a sport utility vehicle.

"They had everything," he said. "what can we do with those now."

Vera Michaelson's distraught father, a Russian immigrant who gave his name as Eduard Ischutsin, joined the man as they walked back to the house near the top of the Sherman Oaks hills. A woman was helping to go through things in the garage.

Outside the gate, next-door neighbor Juanna Milan was watching the group.

"It's so sad," Milan said. "They just moved in about two weeks ago. He seemed like such a nice man."

The couple's two children, ages 5 and 7, were not at the house on Sunday.

Police said the children were staying with relatives in Orange County.

Alex Michaelson, a native of Russia, practiced medicine on Clark Street in Tarzana. Vera Michaelson recently graduated from dental school.

According to Vera Michaelson's Facebook page, she hailed from Minsk, Belarus, and earned degrees from Belarus State University of Technology and California State University, Northridge. She had just completed the dentistry master's program at Nova Southeastern University in south Florida.

According to the California Medical Board website, Alex Michaelson received
his medical training at the Moscow Medical Stomatological Institute and
changed his name from Alexandre D. Mihelson at some point after his California
medical license was issued in 1998.

Alex Michaelson was board-certified in infectious diseases and internal medicine, according to the medical board website.  

Neighbors said the couple were found by one of the doctor's co-workers, who came to the residence to check on him after he abruptly left work on Wednesday, saying that he had an emergency.

"I can't understand how two successful people could end up like that," said a woman who gave her name as Anna, who lives two houses from the Michaelson home.

 At Michaelson's medical office on Clark Street in Tarzana on Friday, there were signs in English and Russian that said, "Due to an emergency the office is closed."

"Everyone is in tears; we can't believe it," said Gail Sample, an officer manager at  the Pulmonary Medical Corp., which is located in the same building as Michaelson's office.

"He was the nicest, sweetest guy,  and he loved her very much," Sample said of Dr. Michaelson and his wife. "When she was in school in Florida, he would fly there every other weekend to see his wife."

"Why was there a gun there?" Sample asked.

Detectives are still investigating the incident, looking for a motive.