Two men found dead in apparent double suicide at Gianni Versace’s former Miami mansion
- The bodies were found by housekeeping staff on the eve of the anniversary of Versace’s murder by a suspected serial killer
- Versace was shot twice in the head by Andrew Cunanan at his Miami home on July 15, 1997
Two men apparently killed themselves, police said, in a suite at the Miami Beach hotel that Gianni Versace turned into his mansion, nearly 24 years to the day after the fashion designer died on the building’s front steps.
Their bodies were found by housekeeping staff on Wednesday, the eve of the anniversary of Versace’s murder by a suspected serial killer. A preliminary investigation ruled it “an apparent double suicide,” Miami Beach spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez said on Thursday.
The scene was contained to the suite, and detectives are still investigating the deaths of Adam Rashap, 31, of Randolph, New Jersey, and Alexander Gross, 30, of York, Pennsylvania, police said.
Versace was shot on the morning of July 15, 1997, as he returned home from the News Cafe, a few blocks away on Ocean Drive. Andrew Cunanan, who was suspected of killing four gay men from Minneapolis to New Jersey, shot him twice in the head at point-blank range.
Following a massive nationwide manhunt that lasted nine days, Cunanan, 27, killed himself in a houseboat where he had been hiding several miles from the mansion. His death left authorities with few answers as to what motivated his killing spree.