3-Year-Old Whose Sports Reporter Mom and Dad Died in Murder-Suicide Opened Door for Grandpa, Who Saw Bodies: Neighbor

A relative who went to check on the Alabama couple found dead in an apparent murder-suicide was let inside by the couple’s 3-year-old son.

Christina Chambers, a beloved former sports reporter, and her husband, Johnny Rimes, were found fatally shot in their Hoover, Ala., home on Tuesday Dec. 16, the Hoover Police Department said in a statement.

Officers responding to a report of the couple found unresponsive said they died from gunshot wounds in what appears to be a murder-suicide.

The couple’s young son was at the residence but was unharmed, police said.

When Chambers and Rimes did not show up to a church event on Tuesday morning, their family grew concerned, and Rimes’s father arrived at the residence to check on them, neighbor Charles Maple tells PEOPLE.

Rimes’s father was greeted by his 3-year-old grandson, who opened the door for him, he says.

“The child answered the door,” says Maple, who says he learned the information from detectives. “And then they went back [into the home] and they found the bodies.”

“It is heartbreaking,” Maple adds.

The couple moved into the neighborhood about seven years ago, says Maple.

The couple appeared happy, Maple says, and both seemed to be loving parents.

However, a little after the birth of the child, Maple says he thought he noticed something was off.

“I just felt something wasn’t right,” he says, adding that there were never concerns about the safety of the child, and Chambers never expressed fear for her own safety.

Maple says that on Tuesday, when he saw the police cars lined up outside the house, “I was so shocked but for some reason, I don’t know why, I wasn’t totally surprised.”

Chambers, a former sports journalist, is being remembered by the local community for her humor and loving nature. After working at WBRC FOX 6, she went on to teach journalism at a high school.

Alabaster City Schools Superintendent Wayne Vickers said in a statement that Chambers “quickly formed meaningful connections with her students” and that “her dedication to them and to her profession was evident in everything she did,” AL.com reported.

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“What Christina Chambers means to so many people in the state of Alabama — cannot even be described,” journalist Simone Eli said in a Facebook tribute.

“Her love for others, her love for her son, her family, her love for running, broadcast, Cullman, UAB — was palpable,” he wrote. “She is the embodiment of a remarkable human being and friend. She has touched so, so many lives. Including mine.”

She had something special about her, says Maple. “Some people just got it, and she had it.”

Police have not publicly announced who was behind the murder-suicide, and did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.