Rory Zitur, 47, a White male, was found shot to death at his home on August 19, 2008, after a chain of events that began miles away in Zimmerman, Minnesota. Earlier that day, deputies responding to a welfare check at the Zimmerman home of Gary and Deloris Heald discovered both spouses dead of gunshot wounds in their basement. A note left at the scene indicated that Gary Heald had killed his wife and “another man,” prompting investigators to look beyond the Heald residence.
When authorities went to Zitur’s home—identified in contemporary reports as being in St. Michael/rural Buffalo—they found him dead from a gunshot wound, the third casualty connected to the same violence.
Detectives quickly pieced together relationships among the three. Investigators told reporters that evidence suggested Deloris Heald and Zitur had met through an online swingers or chat site and were involved in an affair that Gary Heald had uncovered. The Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office publicly concluded that Gary D. Heald, 59, shot Zitur and Deloris before turning the gun on himself, transforming what first appeared to be a domestic scene into a linked double murder–suicide spanning two communities.
The timing of the searches was driven by concern when Deloris, an on-call nurse, failed to report for a shift, and by the discovery of Gary Heald’s note. Those details led officials from the initial Zimmerman scene to Zitur’s residence, where they confirmed his death and connected the cases. In the aftermath, obituaries and memorial notices recorded Zitur’s life and the date of his death, while advocacy and remembrance sites later summarized the official narrative that tied his killing to the Healds’ deaths.
No arrests were made. Investigators identified Gary Heald as the suspect responsible for both homicides, and the case closed with his death by suicide.
