Delco couple a slay-suicide

HAVERTOWN, Pa. - A DISTURBING letter was waiting in the printer of the Herr Drive Line auto-parts store in Havertown when an employee opened the doors yesterday morning.

The computer-generated letter was printed in the apartment above the store, where the owner, Derrick Maylock, 66, and his wife, Suzy, 63, lived.

Derrick Maylock tried to explain in his note, police said, why he had shot his wife and then himself to death in the building on Edgewood Road near Brookline Boulevard where small, plastic crucifixes hung over every doorway.

The letter said that the business had fallen on hard times and that the couple had fallen into bad health, according to Haverford Township police, who have jurisdiction over Havertown.

"He didn't want them to be a burden on their family," Haverford Township Deputy Police Chief John F. Viola said of the note's contents.

Last night, police were still attempting to contact the couple's next of kin, who are believed to be siblings living out of state. The couple had no children and no pets, authorities said.

Police were called to the scene about 9:25 a.m. yesterday by the employee who discovered the letter, Viola said.

Responding officers found the Maylocks dead in their bed.

Police said that Suzy Maylock had been shot once and that Derrick Maylock had a single, self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Investigators found a handgun at the scene and said they believed it had been a murder-suicide.

Herr Drive Line, which according to a small placard in the front window has been open since 1985, is next to the Pig and Whistle Deli on a residential street.

Yesterday, the blinds at the business were closed, but by the thick layers of dust upon them, they appeared to have been pulled down for some time.

"It's one of those places that's always been there but you've never really noticed," Viola said.

Through an open door, a mish-mash of car parts could be seen strewn on ragged shelves in unkempt rooms.

Employees at the business declined to comment, but neighbor Anne Clemens said that Herr Drive Line was an auto-parts and -repair shop for front-wheel drive cars.

Derrick Maylock rented the building where he lived with his wife and where he had his business for what neighbors and police said was about 20 years.

A statue of the Virgin Mary sat in the windowsill of the home, and Suzy Maylock had affixed a crucifix to the vent of her Dodge Intrepid, which, along with a Chrysler CTS, was parked behind the building yesterday.

The couple's neighbors said the Maylocks tended to stay to themselves.

"They were the very reclusive type," said Clemens, who has lived next door with her husband for more than 50 years.

But according to Suzy Maylock's co-workers at Century 21 in Folsom, where the Realtor had worked for about two years, she was far from reclusive at her job.

"She had an awesome personality," said one colleague, who asked that her name not be printed. "There's not one person that you could find that would say anything negative about her."

The co-worker said she was unaware of any financial hardships that the Maylocks may have been experiencing. She said Suzy Maylock's husband was listed as her next of kin.

"It was a total surprise," she said of the apparent murder-suicide. *

Staff writer William Bender contributed to this report.