Police Make Shocking Ruling in Fatal New Jersey Home Explosion

The home explosion in Southern New Jersey that left two dead over the weekend has been ruled a murder-suicide.

The bodies of the victims, a man and a woman, were recovered from the home on Tranquility Court in Washington Township in Gloucester County Sunday. While neither victim has been publicly identified yet, authorities said the woman, who was located in bed, had a fatal gunshot wound to the head, according to the New York Post.

Her death has been ruled a homicide. Meanwhile, the man was discovered in the living room with a handgun next to his body. Prosecutors have ruled his death a suicide by fire.

"The investigation conducted in the aftermath of the fire revealed the presence of an accelerant and that the home's gas line had been tampered with, enabling unrestricted flow of natural gas into the home's interior," the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.

Tuesday's ruling comes one day after the Washington Township Police Department said they believed the cause of the blast was "not accidental."

The entire ordeal unfolded around 2 a.m. ET Sunday morning when multiple neighbors called 911 to report the blast and inferno.

"Responding officers arrived at 13 Tranquility Court and observed that the residence was fully engulfed in flames and appeared to have been heavily damaged by an apparent explosion," a police statement said.

Two houses on either side of the fire reportedly suffered damage, as residents said the blaze spread rapidly. 

“I was terrified, absolutely terrified,” neighbor Susan Pinto told NBC10. “Because I never heard an explosion like that in my life, and it just was, the house was, basically, burning to the ground very, very quickly.”

Investigators do not believe the explosion caused the fire, rather that it occurred after the blaze had already been set.