A Los Angeles Police Department sexual assault detective is said to have committed suicide after being confronted with allegations he molested two relatives.
Dennis Derr, 52, was found in his car in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in Palmdale on Thanksgiving morning, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The man was a 17-year LAPD veteran, and had been a detective since 2006. He was assigned to the Van Nuys division of the LAPD, and had worked on a team that handled sexual assault cases, the Times said.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Special Victims Bureau sergeant Brian Hudson confirmed to the newspaper two adults had made sexual abuse allegations against Derr, and that the abuse had allegedly occurred when they were teenagers.
One of the relatives alleged that he had been abused repeatedly, while the other could recall one instance of abuse a few years ago, his son Philip Derr told The Times.
His wife had left the family home upon learning of the allegations, and the next morning, Nov. 27, he sent an email to family members denying "sexual failures" and alluded to a plan to kill himself, Philip Derr said. His body was discovered later that day.