The Thanksgiving Day tragedy in Palm Beach County bears an eerie similarity to a prior violent episode in the Merhige family.

In July 1973, the twins' aunt -- Salwa Merrige-Abrams, a well-known opera singer and the sister of Michael Merhige, who is father of the twins and the suspected shooter -- killed her husband and two children at her home in Miami.

The mezzo soprano -- who gave up a high-profile career to raise her children -- died five days later, at 43, of a drug overdose.

It happened one day after Merrige-Abrams, a Brooklynite who Anglicized the family's Syrian name, and James Abrams, 45, a National Airlines pilot, had been in court for a final divorce hearing.

She shot him, daughter Melissa Ann, 10, and son Jack, 14, with a .38 caliber revolver.

The Abrams' 19-year marriage broke up after Jim had an affair with a flight attendant, fell in love and moved out.

Retired Miami-Dade police officer Lloyd Hough, sole investigator on the 1973 murders, came to know Michael Merhige well at the time.

He recognized him in television coverage of Thursday's events.

"They're a super-nice family,'' Hough said. "It's the same family.''

He recalled that Jim Abrams came to his ex-wife's house, in the 5400 block of Southwest 60th Court, after she called saying she needed to see him.

Before he got there, she put the children and their poodle mix into her car. A stereo blared.

As Abrams lit a cigarette in the master bedroom, his ex-wife shot him four times in the chest.

She then called Jack into the house and emptied the gun into his body, reloaded, brought Melissa Ann into a different room and shot her.

She again reloaded, said Hough, then swallowed a handful of barbiturates and lapsed into a coma.

Police found her on the living room floor near her piano. She later died at South Miami Hospital.

The dog was still in the car when Hough arrived at the house, a detail that helped him figure out how Salwa managed to kill three people in 10 minutes.