WASHINGTON - D.C. police say a couple was found dead in their home in an upper northwest Washington neighborhood.

Police worked through the night again on Sunday, hoping to find leads or witnesses in the murder of Michael Spevak, 68, and his 67-year-old wife Virginia. Police discovered the couple around 8:30 p.m. Saturday inside their Friendship Heights home. The couple's daughter and neighbors had reportedly called authorities after they had not heard from the pair since Thursday. Police say there was no sign of forced entry. They say that Virginia Spevak had apparently been bound.

The couple's car, a 2005 Toyota Scion, was missing from the house, but police found it early Sunday morning in the 500 block of Ingraham and Hamilton Streets Northwest. It had been set on fire.

Friends of the couple at the Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church expressed shock and sorrow at their senseless deaths. "She was an extremely caring, loving person," said one friend, and another added, "It's unbelievable, and there's a part of me that wonders that the way she lived her life may have brought this on and that's really even more tragic."

Both Spevaks were known for being socially and environmentally conscious. "Ginny" Spevak was a retired Montgomery County (web|news) schoolteacher who volunteered at church with newly-released inmates. Michael Spevak was a psychiatrist who worked mostly with children.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty says crime in the Spevak's neighborhood is rare. Police say they are investigating the couple's death as a homicide. 

Neighbors are alarmed by the violent crime, and largely concur with Mayor Fenty's assessment of the neighborhood. "It's personally really alarming -- I mean, this is a pretty safe neighborhood, so it comes as a shock." And another notes, "There's police everywhere, and crime tape -- it just changes the way you feel about walking around."

Courtesy of: Voice of America

Courtesy of: Voice of America Virginia Spevak at her solar home in NW

Courtesy of: Voice of America