Mari Bonnici, 38, a White/Caucasian female, was found fatally shot inside her Santa Rosa apartment on the evening of August 10, 2025. Santa Rosa police say they were called just after 7 p.m. to an apartment in the 4600 block of Quigg Drive, where officers forced entry and found Bonnici unresponsive on a living room couch with at least one gunshot wound. Her twin toddlers were located unharmed elsewhere in the apartment.
Earlier, a neighbor had called 911 after a man arrived at her door, handed her an infant, and told her to get help because the child’s mother was hurt before leaving the area.
Investigators identified the suspect as Jeremy Lyle, 44, an off-duty Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputy and Bonnici’s former partner; Bonnici worked as a detention specialist for the same agency. According to police, after the shooting Lyle drove to the parking lot of the Sonoma County coroner’s office, where officers attempted to negotiate with him, but he died by suicide before they could safely take him into custody. Authorities characterized the killing as an act of domestic violence that left the couple’s three young children without parents.
Public records and local reporting indicate the pair had a domestic partnership that ended prior to the shooting, with subsequent family-court proceedings addressing custody and visitation. Police and multiple outlets reported no ongoing threat to the public, and no other injuries were noted at the scene. Community tributes and memorial pages later identified Bonnici by name and age and confirmed the date and location of the shooting.
There were no arrests. Police named Lyle as the sole suspect in Bonnici’s killing, and he was found dead shortly afterward, ending the criminal case with an apparent murder-suicide.
