Beverly man and his wife found dead
a day after he was to enter prison
One day after he was to begin serving a nine-year sentence in a federal penitentiary, a 75-year-old man was found dead with his wife at their Beverly home Friday, according to the Essex district attorney’s office.
Family friends found Peter J. Peggs and wife, E. M. Ann Peggs, also 75, in a car parked in their closed garage at about 12:30 p.m., said Carrie Kimball Monahan, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.
While the cause of death is under investigation, police are looking into a possible murder-suicide, Beverly police Lieutenant Joseph Shairs said. The Beverly Fire Department found high levels of carbon monoxide in the garage and in the home, and there was ‘‘some type of motor running’’ in the garage, Shairs said.
Beverly police and State Police assigned to the district attorney’s office are investigating.
Peggs was found guilty in October 2007 for conspiring to promote, market, and sell fraudulent tax shelters over a 10-year period, according to a statement released by the US Department of Justice. Peggs and two others sold loss-of-income insurance policies through a company located in the Virgin Islands, to generate illegal tax deductions.
Peggs and his co-conspirators sold the illegal LOI policies for more than $12 million in premiums and then concealed their full earnings from the Internal Revenue Service.
Peggs was indicted on charges of tax fraud and conspiracy by a federal grand jury in Michigan, according to Monahan. He was convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison on May 28 and was due to report to federal prison on Thursday.
Beverly police have not had any previous problems with the family, Shairs said.
The Peggs lived in their Beverly home for more than 29 years, neighbor Natalie Masotta said.
‘‘We knew them just as neighbors and they were lovely people,’’ she said.
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