A 39-year-old mother’s suicide was deemed ‘suspicious’ after the death of another woman almost four years later – because they both had the same husband.
The revelation was broadcast by St. Louis police on Wednesday and comes days after Sarah Sweeney’s body was found in Robert Daus’ home in the suburb of Maryland Heights, Missouri.
A cause of death has yet to be revealed, but police said the local firefighter’s love interest showed no obvious signs of trauma. A toxicology report is prepared.
The “sudden death” is now under active investigation – as is the 2020 death of Grace Holland, a 35-year-old woman who officers in Creve Coeur say committed suicide at the Daus’ new home in Creve Coeur, Missouri, in July 2020 .
Police in St. Louis County now say the investigation into Holland’s death has been reopened and their investigation “remains active.”
Daus, a captain with the nearby Maryland Heights Fire Department, has yet to be identified as a suspect in either case. He was engaged to Holland when she died, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Missouri police have confirmed that the 2020 shooting of Maryland Heights Fire Chief Robert Daus’ ex-fiancée was “suspicious” and remains under investigation, following the Jan. 13 death of Haus’ latest love interest.
The revelation was broadcast by St. Louis police on Wednesday and comes days after Sarah Sweeney’s body was found in Robert Daus’ home in the suburb of Maryland Heights.
The “sudden death” is now under active investigation – as is the 2020 death of Grace Holland, a 35-year-old woman who officers in Creve Coeur say committed suicide at the Daus’ new home in Creve Coeur in July 2020.
“This case was ruled a suicide by the medical examiner long before we became involved,” said St. Louis County Police Sgt. Tracy Panus in a statement Thursday, revealing that her department’s investigation was reopened last year.
“At the end of our investigation, as with any other death investigation, we never determined the manner of death,” she continued, after police in Creve Coeur asked their department to reassess their 2020 suicide decision.
At the time, Creve Coeur police decided to side with the medical examiner, who ruled that Holland — who had been in an on-and-off relationship with Daus for about four years before her death — died by suicide.
But Panus claimed this week that “(that) ruling is solely the responsibility of the medical examiner,” with the findings of their separate investigation sent to the district attorney’s office in December — weeks before Sweeney’s death.
She added that even after submitting these findings, the Netherlands case “is still classified as a suspicious death and remains active.”
Asked whether criminal charges will be filed, she said: “It is the prosecutor’s job to decide whether further action is necessary.”
Haus had not yet been identified as a suspect on Thursday.
The longtime fire official has denied any involvement in either case.
Police in St. Louis County now say the investigation into her death has been reopened and their investigation “remains active.” Haus has yet to be identified as a suspect in both cases
Daus is a captain with the Maryland Heights Fire District and, according to his Facebook, the vice president of his family business, Liberty Art Works. He has denied any involvement in either death
He was the one who summoned the police to his previous home on July 22, 2020, to report the death of his then fiancée.
“My fiance just shot himself,” he says on publicly available tapes of the 911 call, in which he claimed Holland shot himself in front of him.
“It’s a fatal wound,” he continues.
There was to be a brief investigation, but it ended after suburban police called it off when the local medical examiner ruled it a suicide.
The decision drew almost immediate backlash from Holland’s family, who filed a still-pending lawsuit against Daus alleging he killed the mother of four or drove her to suicide through abuse.
Daus has tried to have that lawsuit overturned, but has so far been unsuccessful.
Similar claims about Daus have since emerged from the family of Sweeney, a podiatrist who met Daus after moving to Maryland Heights while she was working in the emergency room shortly after moving to St. Louis.
A friend of the late medical professional told The New York Post on Wednesday that Sweeney — by then Daus’ live-in girlfriend — contacted her via text message in March 2022 to complain that Living with him was “scary” considering the rumors that he was a ‘murderer’.
“I had to move in with my boyfriend the ‘murderer’ (sic) which was scary at times,” she wrote in messages seen by the newspaper.
Dan, lLast year, St. Louis County police were asked by the CCPD to review their investigation after the Dutch family continued to criticize the way it was handled.
That investigation still had to be reported until Wednesday. It will continue from Thursday.