Police continue death investigation of mother and son in NW Cape Coral

Tuesday, Cape Coral Police Department responded to a home where a mother and son were both found dead and began to conduct a death investigation. Police say they were initially called for a welfare check.

Mother and son Joanne Lynn Walpole, 59, and Michael Edward Walpole, 37 were named by police as the victims.

CCPD detectives continues to investigate the deaths of Joanne and Michael Wednesday. Cause of death has not been confirmed for either of them.

“They’re still investigating that,” CCPD Sgt. Patrick O’Grady said.

When we asked about the possibility of a murder-suicide, O’Grady said, “I don’t know at this time.”

We confirmed Michael is a convicted sex offender. He was arrested in 2012 after admitting to accusations against him. Michael was convicted of a crime against a child under 16 years old, which he served two years in prison for. We asked CCPD if that is factoring into its investigation.

“Our detectives are still doing the investigation, and they’re not going to rule anything out,” O’Grady said.

Part of the investigation includes talking to neighbors. Among them is Dean Gordon, who lives behind the Walpole home. Gordon told us he told CCPD detectives heard loud voices coming from Joanne’s home on Thanksgiving.

“I did hear the lady say something,” Gordon said.

And he told us it sounded like she used a swear word toward someone.

Neighbor Erika Lefande said she knew Joanne for 12 years and won’t forget their last conversation.

“I asked her, ‘How are you feeling? ‘How’s everything going?’” Lefande said. “And she said, ‘I feel great,’ and that night she was dead. So I don’t know what took place In that house.”

And, that night, Lefande says one of her neighbors told her she heard a disturbance at Joanne’s home.

“My neighbor over here said, when she was walking by at nine o’clock at night, she heard someone scream, ‘No,’ coming from the house.”

Lefande told us her daughter used to go over to Joanne’s home to play with her granddaughter. That changed when Michael moved back into the home.

“It’s weird because she had kind of said things to me to give me a heads up to keep my kids away from there,” Lefande said.