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Cops Hope Family Dog Sheds Light On B'klyn Murders

Investigation Into Killing Of Mark And Christine Schwartz Ramps Up As Canine Taken Away For DNA Testing

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Investigators are trying to piece together clues after a couple was killed in their home in Brooklyn on Wednesday. They are leaving no stone unturned, even going after the family dog for evidence.

The key to solving the mystery surrounding the murders of Mark Schwartz and his wife, Christine Petrowski-Schwartz, may be inside the 63rd Precinct. That's where the "Romeo" -- a large black German shepherd -- is being taken care of by police, and checked for DNA in the hope that maybe the killer came in contact with him.

The dog has a reputation on the block for being aggressive; barking loudly at the doors and windows to anyone who walks near the house. But when detectives arrived at the house the dog was tied up in back.

And a police officer close to the case said the dog did not appear to have been drugged.

Regardless, whoever killed Schwartz, 50, and Petrowski-Schwartz, 48, may have known them. And their dog may have known the killer.

Emergency Service officers were called in to examine the sewers near the murder scene, just in case the killer threw something away. These officers didn't expect to find anything, and they haven't.

Still, all the bases have to be covered because someone killed Schwartz and his wife of eight years, , somebody whom police believe the couple may have known.

The bodies were found early Wednesday afternoon by their housekeeper. James Kelly next door had rock music blasting on his iPod and thought he heard something before dawn, but never thought it was the sound of murder.

"I heard boom, boom, boom," Kelly said. "I took off my headsets off. It sounded like someone hanging pictures. If I thought it was gunshots, I would have called 9-1-1."

Half the investigation is at the house where the couple was killed, but the other half is a few blocks away at the couple's law office. He was a divorce lawyer; she was a lawyer specializing in divorce mediation. Her two children from a previous marriage, Melissa, 26, and Nicholas, 24, were captured Wednesday by CBS 2 HD cameras consoling each other. Nicholas lives in an apartment above the offices.

Rosalie Vulpis works at the law firm. She said she began to worry when Petrowski-Schwartz did not call in. Then, when the housekeeper's son called, her worst fears were confirmed.

"She never called in. ... Never, never," Vulpis said.

Please stay with CBS 2 HD and wcbstv.com for more on this developing story.

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