In the quiet community of Yorktown, Virginia, the life of 40-year-old Meriam Macario Kurosawa was tragically cut short on December 28, 2014. Born in the Philippines, Meriam was a mother to three children, a daughter and two sons. She was an active member of her community, known for her involvement with the Philippine-American Community of the Peninsula, the One Heart for Hope Foundation, and as a youth program volunteer at St. Jerome Catholic Church. Meriam worked as a cafeteria worker for Sodexo.
On that late December evening, authorities received a chilling 911 call around 6:30 p.m. from a man who confessed to shooting his wife. When sheriff's deputies arrived at Meriam's residence on Monument Court, they discovered a grim scene. Meriam and her 62-year-old estranged husband, Kurt Kurosawa, were both found deceased in the kitchen area from gunshot wounds. The investigation determined that Kurt Kurosawa had shot his wife before turning the small semi-automatic handgun on himself.
The couple was still legally married but had been living separately at the time of the incident. Authorities reported that the meeting was prearranged for Kurt to sign some documents, leading them to believe the murder was planned. The couple's three children, who were 16, 13, and 11 years old at the time, were not present during the incident as they were at their father's home. They were reported to be unharmed and were placed in the care of out-of-state relatives. Friends of Kurt described him as a retired Air Force sergeant who was devoted to his children, expressing shock that the couple's bitter divorce could culminate in such a tragedy. The case was officially ruled a murder-suicide by the York-Poquoson Sheriff's Office.
