Napa Valley wine merchant shoots dead investor over $1.2m financial dispute before turning gun on himself

Struggling vintner Robert Dahl had a history of fraud, and had spent time in prison for swindling and theft

A Napa Valley vintner killed an investor and himself at the bloody climax of a bitter financial dispute (AP)

The bucolic calm of California wine country was violently disturbed this week, as a Napa Valley vintner killed an investor and himself at the bloody climax of a bitter financial dispute. Robert Dahl, the 47-year-old owner of a struggling local winery, chased business investor Emad Tawfilis, 48, through his vineyard before shooting him dead and then turning the gun on himself.

The charismatic Mr Dahl had reportedly convinced Mr Tawfilis to loan him $1.2m (£800,000) in 2012, to pursue their shared dream of owning a Napa wine business. What he did not tell the investor was that he would quickly roll up the existing business, the Patio Wine Company, and siphon the cash into new ventures. It later emerged that Mr Dahl had a history of fraud, and had spent time in prison in Minnesota for swindling and theft.

After a protracted legal dispute, the two men met on Monday ostensibly to hash out a plan for Mr Dahl to repay the investor. But during a break in a conference call with their respective lawyers, Mr Dahl reportedly pulled out a gun and fired at Mr Tawfilis.

The victim fled wounded through the grapevines and called 911 as Mr Dahl pursued him in a black SUV, but sheriff’s deputies arrived only in time to see Mr Dahl catch up to Mr Tawfilis and shoot him dead, execution-style, with a silencer-equipped semiautomatic pistol. After a high-speed chase, police said Mr Dahl was found dead in his SUV from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“There are few people like him on the planet, but psychopaths are usually that way,” Greg Knittel, another former business partner of Mr Dahl’s, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “When Robert got his back against the wall, he lost control of himself.”

The murder-suicide was the most dramatic incident in a grisly week for law enforcement in the normally tranquil northern California community. On the same day, Napa police discovered the corpses of a couple in their apartment; the 66-year-old man had been dead for about a week, the 55-year-old woman for several weeks. On Tuesday, the body of a 54-year-old man was found in a freezer at his Napa home. His death is believed to have been a suicide, police said. Last Friday, officers shot dead a suspect who fled on a motorcycle as he was served with a search warrant.